


Scratchbent One-Shots

by timefornothing



Series: Scratchbent Universe [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Caliginous Romance | Kismesis, Dreams, Flushed Romance | Matesprits, Memory Loss, Multi, NSFW, Nightmares, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance, Quadrant Vacillation, Rebirth, Resurrection, Scratched session, Smut, abandoning your caste, alien porn, hemocaste system, hey look the sprites are here, i fuckin love dirk the poor guy, idk i love post game stuff, just shoving my characters wherever i want them, kind of like bonus content, like one sundered star, more tags will be added, remembering, squarewave mention, the first chapter was literally the only one with smut in it hahaha, whatever troll grubs are called, wrigglers? idk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-01
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-04-05 08:19:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 59,660
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4172622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/timefornothing/pseuds/timefornothing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shots of things I wanted to put in my fic Scratchbent, but they either didn't make it in because they weren't relevant to the plotline or the fic would have been too long. More tags and characters will be added as soon as more one-shots are added.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. There's a lifeline somewhere out there with an ocean in her eye.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Luke: Reset the game == >**
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> _Sometimes- wake up in the past  
>  Mary, mary so contrary  
> Daydreams - forget all too fast  
> Picking minds when it gets scary_
> 
> _It's too quiet to be listening  
>  Turn a face to the sky  
> There's a lifeline somewhere out there  
> With an ocean in her eye_
> 
> _Slowly as lifetimes unfold  
>  Unobtrusively it's shaking  
> Watching kids lose their souls  
> It's all there for the taking_
> 
> _But it's too quiet to be listening  
>  Turn your head face the sky  
> And the lifeline somewhere out there  
> With that ocean in her eye_
> 
> _Go find that lifeline out there  
>  With that ocean in her eye_  
> -The Ocean in Her Eye by Motorpsycho

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> as proved by the last chapter, i have no idea how to scratch a game. oh well. AU's are for changing things. here's another example of that.

“We can’t just give up!”

“But we can’t do this without her!” Alec shouted back, making Luke grow quiet. Alec was never this loud, never this assertive. They had taken refuge behind a large rock on the surface of Skaia, the battle with the Condesce still reigning down around them.

“How could she literally be that important?” Luke asked, defeated. He studiously ignored the body of their fallen friend behind them, her bright red hair in stark contrast with the ground. “How could someone so destructive--a bard of heart--be so important? She fucked everything over before she even came back to help!”

“Because this isn’t the alpha timeline.” Alec said quietly, green eyes sad. Luke held his tongue, and Ivan nodded beside Alec.

“It’s true. We’ve examined this from every angle. This session was never meant to succeed with a bard of heart.” He gestured to the destruction around them. “Everything that has happened has been as a set up for something else. We were always meant to scratch this session, to start over.”

“So, just like that, we’re giving up? Just because you think we’re doomed?” Karkat finally burst out, and Rose bit her lip. “I don’t think we have a choice.”

Everyone remained silent, looking upwards to where their other friends were still fighting valiantly against the Condesce. Luke felt a deep settling in his gut and knew they were right. They were doomed.

“So how do we do it, then?” Karkat asked. “Just fucking break some shit?”

“We need to scratch.” Rose answered, and Alec spoke before Karkat could get any further than rolling his eyes.

“Jake was talking about how he used to have these dreams sometimes about breaking the ground.” Alec gazed around him, Ivan following his lead. “He said he always struck a sword through something that looked like an old record. We need to find something like that. That symbolizes the game.”

“And where would that--”

A deep boom rocked the ground, cutting Luke off. Up above, more robots began flying down towards them, and Luke watched in fear as Gamzee went sprinting off in the other direction.

“Whoever finds it, good luck!” Alec shouted, grabbing his sword before leaping up into the air, orange hood flying wildly behind him. Ivan joined him, and Luke turned and ran the other way.

He grabbed Ally’s sword, muttering a quick apology before turning away again. There wasn't any time to mourn now. Robots were all around now, the air filled with the sounds of fighting. He sliced his way through the robots, all the while keeping an eye out for something that resembled a record.

And then, through the fray, he saw it twenty feet away, carved into a tall rock: a disc. But could he get over there without dying first?

A loud screech of metal hit his ears, and he saw Ivan tearing his way through the robot in front of him. “Go!” The troll shouted, flecks of purple blood covering his skin. Was it Luke, or were Ivan’s eyes getting more orange? “I’ll cover you! We need to scratch!”

“What happens when we do?” Luke asked, suddenly worried. Ivan smirked a bit, then replied, “All we can do is hope for the best.”

Another robot dropped in front of him, and Ivan pushed Luke forward, turning to fight off the robot with a roar that scared Luke to his core. He turned, running directly for the rock. The symbol was about four feet above the ground, carved in deep grooves. Luke gripped Ally’s sword tighter, hearing her laughter in the back of his mind.

_“Let’s roll, boys!”_

With a shout, he drove the sword upwards, shoving it directly into the center of the disc. He heard a resounding crack, and then the sky began to shake. Luke turned to look for Ivan, but his surroundings were growing too bright to see. The sounds of the battle died out as a ringing echoed in his ears, and then all he knew was silence.

 

\- - - - -

 

Ben Baker was, by no means, anything special. Sure, he skipped a grade in kindergarten--and again in first grade, and taught himself to read, but there was nothing exceptional about him. He sat in the corner of the second grade room and read about geometry while the other kids learned to write in cursive. The teachers often talked in hushed tones to his father when they thought he couldn’t hear, say things like, “Mental Disability” and “Social Disorder”, but he would tune them out, return to his stories about space and all it held.

His mother died when he was eight years old. He was in fourth grade and knew plenty about people dying. He had read hundreds of stories by now, knew what dying meant. But somehow it was different when it happened in real life. There was no longer anyone to tell about his stories he was reading. He had no more help from his homework. Not that that really mattered, since his dad pulled him out of school right away.

He stayed in his room, listening to his dad pacing around downstairs. It was a car crash, he had said. The police told him she must have slipped on black ice. The doctors said it happened instantly, that she felt no pain. His best friend’s dad, Uncle Alec, that he sat with in the waiting room told him that everything will be okay. His wife told Ben that his dad will be okay.

The woman with the ocean in her eyes told his father it wasn’t an accident.

Ben had been upstairs in his room after they got back from the hospital, staring at nothing. The house was quiet save for the quiet clinking of ice against a glass downstairs. That meant his dad was drinking, and he had only ever drank one other time in his life.

Then the front door burst open with a loud bang, shaking the walls of the house. Ben jumped up immediately, running to the stairs as he heard his father shout. 

“What are you doing here?”

“What, you didn’t miss me?”

Ben peered around the corner of the stairwell, watching with wide eyes. His dad stood in the doorway to the kitchen, shoulders wide--though slouched, as if he couldn’t quite muster up the proper anger for his outburst.

In front of him was a woman with dark brown hair and the fiercest green eyes Ben had ever seen. He read a lot about gemstones, and felt like even emeralds couldn’t compare. In fact, they were a lot like his father’s friend’s eyes. She had a deep pink cape around her shoulders, hitting the floor, the bottom edge of it muddy. She appeared to be the same age as his father, but he had never seen her around before when his mom used to throw her parties.

“You can’t just burst into my house like this!” His father was arguing, reaching for the cell phone on the table. “Does Alec know you’re here?”

“No, but I’ll go to see him next. Don’t bother calling him.” She replied, then raised an eyebrow as she caught sight of the glass in his hand. “Drinking, are we, Luke?”

His father only scowled deeper, and the girl continued to talk. “I don’t care. But I need to tell you something. It’s happening, Luke. It’s happening again. Emma’s death wasn’t an accident.”

“Ally, you’re insane. You can’t just come in here spewing your crazy stories--”

“Do you know why they killed her?” She interrupted, taking a step forward. Ben watched her sweep forward with wide eyes. She was much smaller than his father, but had a commanding presence that demanded the room’s full attention. “Because she was on her way to see me. They knew she was going to see me.”

His father faltered finally, shock dissolving his walls. “She knew where you were?”

The woman paused for a moment, then asked quietly, “Can you blame her for not telling you?”

Ben could feel the tension in the room. It felt ready to burst like the lightning outside. He read a lot about storms, and the destruction they could cause. His dad was the thunder outside. Solid, loud, in charge but harmless. This woman was a typhoon.

“I came to warn you.” She spoke up again, watching his father carefully as he grabbed the glass and took another swig before setting it on an end table. “They’re going to come for you, soon. And Alec. And Fran, and their kids. You know they will.”

“Ally, no one’s coming after us.” His father sighed, a defeated tone entering his words, as if he was tired of saying the same things. “You’ve been saying it for years. No one’s coming for us. Emma was in a car crash, and it was an accident. You ran away because your parents liked Alec better, not because you knew too much.”

“How do you explain a car crash like that?” She finally shouted, and Ben could hear the wind pick up with her words. “It’s fifty degrees outside! There was no black ice! She’s the best and safest driver we know! And how do you explain my apartment catching on fire three separate times? And my car? And that night I spent with you--”

“Don’t.” He cut her off, staring a hole into the floor. “I don’t know why you’re here, but thanks for letting me know you’re still alive. Now, if you would leave before I--”

“Luke, I’m here to warn you.” She repeated. “I don’t want to see anything happen to you guys. You _are_ my family, despite what Alec tells you our mother says. You need to protect yourselves. Get all of your important things into safe boxes. Beef up on security. Move somewhere safer.”

“What, and just uproot Ben from the life he has right after his mother’s been taken from him?”

“How is he?” The tone in her voice changed drastically, wind dropping down to a light breeze. “Is he okay? God, I wish I could have been there for him.”

“Well, you had the last six years to be there, but you weren’t.” He responded, and Ben shrank back against the stairs at the hurt in his father’s eyes.

“You know I couldn’t.” She whispered back, and he nodded.

After a tense moment of silence, he sighed. “Look, I don’t care what your excuse is. It was nice to see you, but now is not the time. I need--I need time. I need it. To relax, and rethink what I’m going to do about Ben and all of this.” He looked up at her, now only a few feet away. Something changed in his stance, like he was relaxing around her, accepting her presence finally. “If what you’ve been saying is true, what do I need to do?”

“Be strong. Just like I know you are. Don’t start drinking again, not when you finally quit all those years ago. Stay up to date on the stocks. Pay attention to your dreams.” Her tone stayed soft, warmer than sunlight through a window. Ben’s chest ached, and he frowned, confused.

“And Ben?” His father was asking.

“Make him strong, too. Get him in martial arts, or fencing, or something. He needs to be prepared for what’s going to happen.”

His father nodded, still staring at the carpet. After a moment, she turned to leave, mumbling something about needing to see Alec and tell him, too. She paused as she opened the door, hand on the doorknob and cape already fluttering in the wind.

“Did you love her?”

More silence filled the room. With a sad smile on his face, his father replied, “I had to.”

The woman nodded, pulling her hood over her face and stepping outside. His father didn’t move, staring after the door like he couldn’t decide what to do.

“Dad?”

His father’s gaze snapped over to him, expression worn and tired beyond his years. Without a word, he took Ben upstairs and put him to bed. Ben laid awake for hours, struggling to understand what all he had heard. All the books in the world couldn’t teach him how to decipher a conversation like that.

His father asked him the next morning over breakfast, “How do you feel about swords?”

Ben shrugged. “They look cool.” His father nodded, continuing his search on the computer.

The funeral was a quiet affair, not many people. He sat next to his father and Marie, accepting hugs from the people that came by, but not fully understanding the tears in their eyes. Towards the end, he saw a familiar pink cape, and watched with wonder as she slid around the edges of the room, almost like she didn’t want to be seen. His father slid away for a few minutes to talk to her, and when he came back, Ben tugged on his suit sleeve to grab his attention.

“Dad? Who was that?”

His father got that look he did sometimes whenever Uncle Alec would tell a story from back in their childhood days. He’d smile a bit, his eyes would get a sad and far away look, and he’d slouch a bit further. He looked to the door the woman just exited out of and said quietly, “Just an old friend, bud. An old friend.” Then Marie was pulling him over to the food table, and he forgot all about the woman with the ocean in her eyes.

Fencing came easily to him, as did martial arts. There were precise movements and motions, each position very specific. He excelled quickly over the years, his father beaming with pride at every new belting ceremony. Once he had finished karate and jiu jitsu, he moved on to other, more complicated forms in farther away buildings. He was soon the top of his class at fencing, and in high school joined a club team where he swished and parried his way to the top entry in tournaments around the state.

He didn’t talk much to people at school, but he stayed close with Marie, who was in the same grade. The other kids all thought he was weird, being the youngest student, but she loved hanging out with him. Her mom invited him and his dad over for dinner often, and he brought a new book for her every time.

He graduated High School at 16 with a 4.2 GPA, and immediately enrolled in online classes at a college for engineering. His dad let him do what he wanted since he was away most of the time, and Marie left for university. For the next two years, he was mostly alone, and that’s when he made a few friends on the internet.

One was on the exact opposite side of the world, but he liked being awake at night more, anyways. He’d sit on the roof with his laptop and watch the stars while his friend went on and on about how much the people in her town sucked. A boy with a stutter found confidence online, and Ben taught him basic martial arts over skype. All was boring and mundane and he finished his first college degree in two years.

“Do you wanna play Sburb?”

He wished he would have known then how much those five words would change his life. He was 18 now, and working on his second degree in astronomical physics. What was a simple game to a ‘child prodigy’ like him? The girl on the other side of the world connected to him and just as he was about to connect to Marie, his front door opened.

Weird. His father was away on a business trip and wasn’t supposed to be back for another two days. Before he could get up to investigate, his bedroom door burst open and he turned around to find himself staring down the barrel of a gun.

Granted, it looked like a toy gun, but he was more terrified of the person holding it. She had shockingly blonde hair and her eyes were glowing blue, and he was sure he recognized her from somewhere.

“Any last words?” She asked mockingly, and he frowned at how cliche that was.

“Are you seriously going to shoot me?”

A vase behind him shattered, and his eyes widened as the glow in her eyes increased. He guessed that was a yes. As her finger began tightening on the trigger, his window shattered, and he flinched back as a streak of red went shooting in front of him, shouting its way across his room, colliding with the girl with the gun, and straight through his other wall.

In relief, he took a couple deep breaths, then ran out the bedroom door, staring at the scene before him. Another girl was looking down at the girl with the gun on the floor, breathing heavily.

“What the hell is happening?” Ben asked, utterly confused.

He heard the girl standing snort, heard her say, “Well, Emma’s down for the--” She cut herself off abruptly as her eyes landed on him. “Oh, shit, you’re not Luke.”

He furrowed his brow, even more confused than before, if that was possible. “And you are not what I expected to come flying through my window.”

She was short, red hair shockingly bright in the darkness of the hallway. As he looked into her eyes, he felt a deep pull in his chest, almost as if he had seen her somewhere before. As she spoke with her friends, there was a fire in her voice, a passion lit deep within. He was swept along after her in a tide of fury, pulled along into adventures he had only ever read about.

Throughout it all, he could never figure out where he knew her from.

She was by his side in the dark tunnels, she was fighting for her life in the caverns, and she was fighting for his as she fell in front of him, green eyes still shining like a beacon in the darkness. It was only when he realized he had lost her that he realized how much he had loved her, and where he had known her from.

She had fire in her heart and flames in her soul, but her life held a hurricane of emotions, always swirling. She changed the tides and pulled him out further, drowning him in a love that he could never recover from. Her waves rocked over his body, lulling him down into her depths as he felt himself falling. He was her anchor when the whirlpools surfaced, keeping her steady as the rip currents tore through everything they knew.

He was adrift in her wake, and she held the ocean in her eyes.


	2. Do you remember? Do you remember who you were to me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Jake: Scratch the session == > **

“Dirk!” Jake screeched, clutching at his arm. He watched in horror as Dirk fell from the sky, landing solidly on the ground. He hadn’t broken his fall, so he must have been…

No. No, he couldn’t be. _Not Dirk._

Jake looked up again, looking to everyone else where they lay fallen. Dave and Karkat, together till the end. Gamzee was nowhere to be found, Terezi was fallen over a still Vriska, vision eightfold now unseeing up at the sky above her.

“There’s nowhere else to run, human.” A cold voice echoed in the empty space, causing Jake to look up. He swallowed in fear. There was the Condesce, tall and terrifying and coming straight for him. With a cold weight settling in his gut, he knew they were going to lose. All of the hope, all of the plans: it had been for nothing.

_Not even a scratch could save us now._

But...wait. A scratch. A scratch like the one that had created them in the first place. A scratch could reset the game and give them another chance to do it. A chance to get even more heroes here, to help them in the final battle. There was still hope.

He sprinted up, ignoring the searing pain in his gut as he ran towards Dave’s sword. The Condesce screeched behind him, and he could hear her accessing her trident once again. Would he make it in time?

The cold metal whizzed by his head, making him whimper as he stooped to grab the sword. How would he even know what to scratch? All there was was a ton of rocks and other player’s weapons and the ground--

The sword began vibrating as Jake stared at the center of the battlefield. It was if the weapon had known what he meant to do with it. But he’d have to evade the evil troll long enough to get to the strange circle symbol carved in the dirt.

“Get back here, maggot!”

Another trident accompanied the hiss, and he took off again, wheezing as he skidded on his knees over to the circle. It was shaped strangely like a record, almost three feet across. The sword was vibrating more violently now, causing Jake to use two hands to hold it.

With one more terrified look at the troll coming for him, he raised the sword and plunged it deep into the symbol. The last thing he heard was a bone-rattling screech, colliding with him and sending fireworks exploding behind his eyes.

 

“Bro!”

He sat up in bed, breathing heavily with wide eyes. Was the troll after him? Did he make it to the ground in time? Where was she?

“Bro, are you okay?”

A lamp turned on next to him, flooding the tiny bedroom with light. He turned to see his younger sister sitting up in her bed, concern flooding her green eyes.

Of course. It was just a dream. The same dream, in fact, that he’d been having ever since he could remember. Just a dream.

“Yeah, fine.” He shook his head, staring down at the blanket covering his body. “Just a bad dream, Ally.”

“The nightmare?” Ally asked, getting out of bed and coming over to sit at the edge of his. She looked at him with an unspoken question, and he smirked, sliding over so she could climb in next to him. She was only 10 years old, but already she was hitting her growth spurt. Soon there wouldn’t be any more room for a cuddle after someone has a nightmare. “The one with the ground breaking?” She continued, laying her head on his chest.

“Yeah, that one.” He sighed, smirking. “It wasn’t all bad though. I had a cooler name in my dream.”

“A name cooler than Ambrose?” Ally snorted, and he could feel her smile against his chest. Already, he could feel himself relaxing. It was as if she could make the bad feelings go away just by being near her. She had always been like that. Ever since she was little, she had been able to deal with emotions even better than him. Of course, this made her a menace at school, but he usually ignored the teacher’s calls. As long as she was getting passing grades, he didn’t mind much what she did.

“Yeah, cooler than Ambrose. Easier to spell, too.” He laughed. 

“Was it Dirk?”

Just like that, the tension returned. Why did that name sound so familiar?

“No, it was Jake. Why would you think Dirk?”

Ally shifted against him, like she could tell he was upset. “Because that was the name you were shouting.”

“Oh.” Ambrose looked up to the poster on his wall. They didn’t have much in their one bedroom apartment, but the things they did have meant a lot to them. It was a signed poster by the rapper Squarewave, when Ambrose had snuck into a show a few years back. Squarewave had caught him backstage, but instead of kicking him out, let him stay back there the whole show and then signed the poster for him. Squarewave made him promise that Ambrose would come back to a show when he was in town again, but he was never able to make it. Ally was older now, and needed more rides places and more money for things, so he had to work more to keep up with it. But he kept the poster there, kept it for nostalgic purposes. Memories of a simpler time when he could sneak into shows and bring back CD’s for Ally’s birthday present that year.

“Bro? Do you know someone named Dirk?” Ally asked, and Ambrose almost had to stop himself from saying yes. Why did he feel like he should?

A flash of orange, the memory of a funny pair of sunglasses, _matching red and green helmets, a volcano--_

“No, I don’t.” He laughed, trying to reassure both Ally and himself that he was alright. “What a weird dream, right?”

“Mmhmm.” Ally mumbled, already falling asleep against him. He smiled, leaning over to turn off the lamp before settling back on the pillows. But the feeling didn’t go away.

It was a feeling like you had forgotten something, something important. Ally’s birthday was a few months away, so it wasn’t that. He had paid the bills--barely--last week. Nothing was about to expire in the fridge.

The rap poster on the wall stared back at him, almost as if it was willing him to remember.

He really, really wished he could.


	3. Hello there, the angel from my nightmare

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Ally: Calm the beast == >**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More of Ally and Gamzee because they're just the best okay

Your name is Gamzee Makara, and you think you might believe in angels.

The first time you see her, you’re sure it’s in a dream. You’re trapped in the darkness with the laughter echoing all around you. And it’s not the happy laughter, like you hear from your friends or even the laughter of the church, but a dark, menacing laughter. A threatening laughter. A laughter that promises to drown you out so that no one else would ever find you again in this deep, dark pit. You lash out at it, but it only laughs harder, remains out of reach, sends more colors of paint in your direction for you to spread with the harshwhimsy inside.

Then there’s a light. A soft, pink light, unlike any of the colors thrown at you. It has no place on the hemospectrum, so it has no reason for you to paint with it. You pause, watching it, and it grows brighter and brighter the slower you move. There’s bits of red flying through the pink; an iridescent green; a warm, sandy brown. They’re all around, swirling and reaching out and sending away the darkness. Eventually, you let it wash over you, let the warmth of its’ light envelope you totally, completely, and you lose yourself to the calming words.

_You’re safe, no one’s going to hurt you. I’ve got you. You’re safe._

You nod along, and for once, believe the darkness won’t come again as you fall asleep.

The second time you see her, you know it’s not a dream. You’ve been awake for days, roaming the hallways with your new freedom. Vriska has let you out of your chamber on the promise that, “If you try anything, Kanaya is going to slice your head off.” And although you knew the laughter wouldn’t stay away for long and the paints would need to be refilled, you agreed. Things were mostly quiet, deeper in the meteor. That’s why you chose to venture closer to the top. If things were too quiet, too calm, too dark, that’s when you began to lose yourself again. And you did not want to go back into solitary confinement, even if Karkat agreed it was for your own good.

_Motherfuckin’ traitor._

You were about to enter the library some of the humans frequented when you heard a clamor from up above. It sounded like one of the outer doors had been open and shut, bringing with it the sounds of Karkat’s yelling. That itself was pretty normal, but there was another voice rising above the rest, almost drowning him out. Impressed, you wanted to see who it was. You disappear through the transportalizer, appearing once again in the entrance room. It’s a giant, metal plated room that causes every noise to echo, but no one notices as you come forth, height allowing you to peer over the heads of everyone gathered around.

It seems like everyone else wanted to know what the noise was as well. Vriska’s got an arm around Terezi, whispering in her ear. Kanaya and Rose are off to the side, faces stoic yet interested. Dave looks bored, but you can feel the fear centers in his mind firing off with this new and unexplained turn of events. And in the center of the crowd, you can see Karkat firing off at this group of ragtag stragglers standing in your meteor room.

They’re covered in dirt, the five of them, and they all look tired. You smirk to yourself, feeling the fear in their minds. The short one, afraid of how many of you there are versus how many of them. The large human male, attempting to size you up. The human male next to him, afraid of Karkat--imagine that? The troll, like yourself. Your eyes open a bit wider. This motherfucker is almost _exactly_ like you. Tall, lanky, horns curving up and out--why, you can even smell the purple on him. What’s up with the grey symbol on his shirt? 

“How the fuck did you even get here anyway?” Karkat is screaming, hands flying out on either side of him. “You show up out of absolutely nothing and just expect us to let you in?”

“I told you, we came through the cracks!” Says something pink and red, and your blood pusher nearly stops.

It’s the same soft pink as you saw in your dream, although solid, living and breathing. _A motherfucking miracle._ She’s got bright red hair and fierce green eyes and the soft, sandy brown of her skin stands in a stark contrast in front of Karkat. She’s nearly as short as him, and made of pure fire. They continue to argue, but you’re lost in the glow, which is probably why everyone paused when you asked, “What’s this motherfuckin’ purple blood doing with a fire-bitch like her?”

Kanaya and Vriska immediately go for weapons while Karkat openly gapes. It seems the new humans have noticed you for the first time, and when her green eyes land on yours, you almost feel yourself set on fire. 

“How do you know he’s a purple blood?” Karkat asks, and you almost laugh as you feel the fear spike in the new troll.

“You can motherfucking smell it on a brother.” You answer, walking forward, and Terezi snorts. Dave sighs and points out, “It’s also kind of staining his clothes. Just so you know.” 

Everyone takes a moment to pause and look at the new troll, and that’s when the girl spits out, “Did he just call me a fire-bitch?”

“Don’t listen to him.” Karkat answers, rolling his eyes. “He’s crazy. Vriska usually keeps him locked up in his chamber.”

“Locked up? By himself?” The fire is asking, deflating out of concern, and you’re smiling down at her before Karkat can realize how close you’ve gotten.

“The name’s Gamzee.” You extend your hand, but Kanaya’s right there, backing you up with the threat of her chainsaw. She and Vriska herd you back down into the darker hallways, Karkat resumes his yelling, and it is ultimately decided that they can stay.

Her name is Ally, and you can feel the burn as you fall deeper into the black pit.

Normally, the daymares aren’t so bad, nothing you’re not used to. There’s the laughs and the screams and the honks and you’re used to all that, you’ve seen it all before. But since you were rescued the first time, they’ve gotten worse. Ever since the light came and protected you, it’s like the darkness has been trying harder. And you’re terrified.

You’re in the dark hallway, on the level just below the main one, trapped in the corner with the laughter all around. It’s echoing in your ears and firing behind your eyelids, tempting you to lash out against it as you growl your way through the tide of darkness washing over you.

“Is that Gamzee?”

“Shit. It is. Let me go get Kanaya--”

“Is he okay?”

You’re growling, low and deep. How dare the voices take on those of your friends?

“No, you really shouldn’t get too close to him when he’s like this. Ally, seriously, stop. Ally! Are you fucking pan-dead? A death wish maybe? Ally!”

“Gamzee, hey.”

You snarl, twitching further away from the voice. It sounds again, and you perk a bit, some of the laughter dying away for a second as confusion clouds your pan. That wasn’t a voice filled with the malicious intent as they usually were. Was this some sort of new trick? A new way to torture you? A shadow forms in the background of the darkness, an unsuspecting shape coming to life.

“Ally, don’t fucking touch him! I'll be right back, just stay away from him!”

Warmth glances off your shoulder, and you twitch away again, eyes flying wildly in your skull as you try and see past the darkness. You snarl as you feel it drawing closer, snapping your teeth when the weight lands on your shoulder again. But it stays there, solid, unafraid, and a pinprick of light breaks through the darkness.

“Gamzee, can you hear me?”

It’s soft and warm and bright and growing stronger the longer you look at it. Just like in your dream, she’s breaking through, and you can see the red through the hole in the darkness. Next are her eyes, her green green eyes, comforting and concerned and it’s so new and unfamiliar to you that you growl again.

“I got you, Gamzee, you’re okay.” There’s warmth on both your shoulders, rubbing softly up and down your arms. She’s smiling up at you, close and in your space and she’s not afraid of the darkness. You are, you’re so afraid, the darkness could come back any _second_ \--

“Hey, hey, shhh.” She frowns a bit, and you noticed your growling changed pitch, became closer to a whine. “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’re here. You’re okay.” She continued her slow rub, the darkness disappearing and the laughter growing quieter with every caress. Her hands are so warm against your skin, her eyes so bright, and you begin to believe her. It’s going to be okay.

“What is she doing near him?”

Green eyes whip around, “Kanaya, hold on a second--”

“Kanaya, fucking wait, what are you--”

“Back up!”

The roar of a chainsaw coming to life startles you out of your haze, sends the dark laughter reeling behind you as the darkness creeps up again in your vision. The warmth is ripped away from you, shocking you enough that a growl is torn from your chest, deep and threatening. You reach out, trying to grab it back, but you feel your claws connect instead, warm blood gushing over your fingertips.

You hear a low hiss of pain, someone else’s growl, and then you’re being shoved back into the darkness, trolls herding you once more away from the light.

“He didn’t mean to do it! He was scared!”

“Ally, we’ve got to get you cleaned up, Jegus--”

“He was scared! You should have let me help him!”

“You can’t fucking help everyone, Ally!”

You’re thrown into a room, hitting hard against a wall, and the darkness closes in again. You hold the warm blood close to your chest until it grows cold, and resign yourself to your daymares once more.

Two days later, and you’re painting. The swirls cover the walls, near impossible to decipher one from the next. In the midst of one particular stroke, a shout breaks through your reverie, causing you to blink and really see for the first time since you were put in here.

“Just let me see him for a minute!”

“Look, I don’t know what sort of fucking complex you got going on, but this is literally the stupidest idea to come out of your mouth since I fucking met you, including your suicidal attempt to fucking cuddle him. I don’t even know how you found this fucking chamber!”

“He’s not dangerous, I swear.” The voice was quieter now, but you were facing the door, blinking as you listened.

“Bullshit he’s not dangerous! Do you know how many of us he killed?”

“That’s because no one was there for him! He’s only dangerous because you’re all too fucking scared and busy to actually try and help him! He needs a friend, not a prison guard!”

It was silent for a minute, and you can feel the fear seeping out of Karkat’s mind from the other side of the door. He was afraid of you, afraid for Ally, afraid of what would happen if you were let out again.

 _Let him be afraid._ The voices in your mind chant. _Let him be motherfucking terrified._

“Fine. Two minutes, then you’re out of there.” Karkat grumbles, and then the door is sliding open, and you blink in the bright light, recoiling backwards.

Against Karkat’s angry requests, Ally pulls the door shut behind her, and you growl as the darkness sets in once again.

“Gamzee, hey, it’s me.” Her voice is calm, soothing against the grating laughter in your ears. “Remember me? You kind of almost clawed my arm off the other day?” The sentence sounds like a question, and as your eyes adjust to the darkness once more, you can see the bandages going from her upper arm past her elbow. You recoil as you see it, smelling the blood, but she’s inching forward, hands outstretched openly.

“No, no, it’s fine, I swear I’m not mad.” She smirks at you, eyes still unsure. They’re bright in the darkness, catching your gaze and holding it there. “Believe it or not, I’ve had worse. Should heal up soon, anyways.” She’s sitting down in front of you now, legs criss-crossed only inches from yours. You can’t pick up any fear coming from her pan, and that’s a miracle in itself. “Dave thought I was insane for coming back down here, and I’m sure you heard Karkat trying to stop me.” She’s smirking, and you can’t hear the evil laughter anymore. “Dunno, just had to come make sure you’re alright. I know you hurt me, but it was just because you were scared, right? Probably didn’t know what was going on.”

“Motherfuckin’ rambling.” You manage to mumble, still on edge, and she laughs a bit, a warm sound in the dark room.

“I do ramble a lot, I know. But I figured you wouldn’t want to talk yet, so I’d fill the silence. You said you hated the silence, right?” She must read the confused look on your face correctly, because she clarifies. “When you were growling the last time I saw you. You said you hated being alone and in the silence. And I can kind of read people's minds when they're emotional, apparently. Also you said something about the darkness, but you seem pretty okay right now.”

Her words strike something in your chest, bringing up your fears like that, no one’s supposed to know, _no one’s supposed to know_ \--

“Hey, sorry, hey, you’re fine--” Ally’s hand is reaching forward, resting on your knee-- “We don’t have to talk about it. We can talk about something else.” The warmth grounds you, stops the whine in your throat before it can escape. You’re shaking your head, _no one’s supposed to know,_ but you can’t keep it in anymore.

“Darkness motherfucking scares me, fire-sister. It’s not up and empty, there’s the voices.”

She’s frowning, but her hand stays steady on your leg when she asks, “Voices?”

“Laughing at me, always motherfucking laughing.” You shake your head, make to turn away from her, but she scoots closer, slides on the floor so she’s against your side, warm arms wrapping around your waist. 

“You’re okay, Gam, you’re alright.”

Your throat tightens at the nickname. You lean down into her, allow her shorter frame to wrap around you as you lean back against the wall. You’re still shaking, but she’s holding you, surrounding you with soothing words and a bright light that drives away the last of the shadows in the room. No one’s held you like this in sweeps. How long has it been since someone could even get this close to you?

“Why do you have all those cuts on your arm?”

Her voice is careful, like she might not want to know the answer, but you just shrug against her, nuzzling your face into her shoulder and no doubt smearing your paint more. It hasn’t been on right since they locked you up anyhow. You don’t want to tell her, but the words are up and spilling anyways, pouring themselves without a second thought.

“A brother’s gotta get his paint on somehow.”

There’s the fear. But, it’s not of you, it’s _for_ you. She’s afraid for you, worried about you. She tenses up, but before she can say anything, the door is flying open and Karkat and Kanaya are barging in, shouting and bringing too loud of noises into your think space. You growl as they try to convince Ally to leave, but she’s patting your face--she’s papping you, _she’s motherfucking papping you and she doesn’t even know it_ \--assuring you she’ll come back as soon as they let her.

“I’ll find you again, Gam. I’ll always find you. You’re safe, don’t worry.”

Then she’s pulled from your arms and the door is shut and you’re left alone in the dark once more. You lay on your back and stare up at the paint and see hundreds of tiny diamonds staring back down at you.

_He needs a friend, not a prison guard._

She’s back again the next day, and you immediately reach out to her, folding yourself in her arms as she sits next to you, holding tightly around your shoulders and already sending her whispers straight into your think pan.

“Hey, you’re fine, you’re okay. You made it through the whole night and there’s no new paint! See, you’re already getting better.”

It doesn’t matter what the words are so long as they’re here, you decide. You hadn’t even realized you were whining until she started talking. She can up and say whatever she wants as long as these diamonds are grounding you in place and keeping the daymares away. It’s a few minutes before you calm down enough to listen to her and whatever she’s been up and saying.

“...So I told him he was nuts, obviously, and that set him off again. I don’t know. It just kind of feels good to have a little brother again. I mean, I know I didn’t actually have a little brother in this timeline, but whatever, still feels like it. Because of the visions, you know? Anyways...” She’s laughing, and your head moves with the motion. “Can’t believe I actually told him off though. That distracted him long enough that I could come down here. But I don’t think he’s going to interrupt this time. I think I got Rose on board with what I’m thinking, so she can convince Kanaya and Kanaya can convince Karkat, and he’ll come around eventually. Since he’s been sitting outside of your door like a lost puppy, he’s the one I need to convince that you’re fine out there.”

You perk up a bit at the mention of ‘out there’, and she smiles against your hair, hand rubbing a tiny pattern into your shoulder.

“I mean, if I can keep you happy like this, you’re fine, right? You’d call it a motherfucking miracle, don’t you? Always saying something about miracles. Love it. You just need someone to talk to and to take the mean voices away. And I’m always gonna be that person. I’m always here for you, Gam.”

You can’t stop the purr that erupts from your chest, and she laughs, and you laugh with her, and you don’t hear the voices for the whole time she’s there.

Just as she promised, you’re allowed out of your chamber with her the next day, and within a week, you’re allowed free reign. _That_ is the motherfucking miracle. It’s almost back to what it used to be, except now you have her. She’s around at night when the daymares are threatening to take the reigns again, she’s around in the afternoon when things get too quiet, and she’s by you at all meal times, smiling and listening to the words up and coming out of your mouth. No one took the time to listen to you, but she does. She listens to everything, even gets her little friend to listen as well. Fran, her name is. The darker sister loves to listen to your stories.

You’re proper moirails now, you think, if Ally understood what that meant. You defended her when Luke was up and insulting her, you helped her calm down after her fight with him, and you even piled her once. Of course, she didn’t know what that meant, she thought you were just cuddling on top of pillows. Or maybe she did know. She’s said the word ‘pap’ a few times aloud now, and if Rose’s smirks are anything to go by, she knows exactly what’s going on. Your horns are cleaner than they've been in sweeps and your nails are trimmed and your paint is all crisp lines and her wounds have healed almost totally. Everything was motherfucking wonderful.

Until the day the troll attacked, and Ally was ripped from your side to go fight.

You stayed as long as you could, fighting to get her back, but then the laughter and the voices came and you ran to your chamber, huddling against the painting and focusing on the smell of her and waiting for them to go away.

 

\- - - - -

 

Being the god of a universe was not what you thought it would be. And maybe it’s because it was thrusted upon you so suddenly that you didn’t realize what had happened. The last thing you remembered, you were running towards the darkness with thousands of screams and fears raining down on your thinkpan, and then suddenly it was silent.

There were no more screams. There was no laughter. The air was a pleasant temperature, you could breathe properly, and there was no more pain where you had been hit by shrapnel.

Carefully, you opened your eyes and looked around. You were in the middle of space, floating amongst the stars and above a giant expanse of a planet. It was purple, with dark blue clouds just tiny wisps in its’ atmosphere. You were so amazed by the beauty and silence of everything that you almost missed the faint shouting.

You turn, eyes searching for the source of the noise. There, off to your left--two people swooping towards you, cheering at the top of their lungs.

“We did it! We fucking did it, Gamzee!” Terezi was cackling, holding on tightly as Vriska zoomed them forward. “We won the game! We have a whole universe to rule! We won the game!”

You grin as Vriska pulls you along as well, and you check out hundreds of planets millions of miles apart. You play with the things under your control--a god of rage, oh how well but terrible this could go--and watch as life begins to spring up, year after year. It starts out small, some planets moving quickly, some planets barely changing at all. Twenty years pass, and you finally settle into your role, picking your purple planet to hide out in. It’s quiet, but something’s always happening. And though you haven’t felt the menacing stares of the chucklevoodoos since you became gods, you still keep yourself away from too dark spaces and enclosed areas where there isn’t enough room to breathe.

Forty years have passed, and you’ve seen some more of your friends. Vriska and Terezi come by often, still not settled on a planet they like best. Jade and Kanaya have been by to make sure things are going well in your area, and they are. The planet is mostly water, but full of life as tiny organisms begin to grow stronger fins and bigger gills. Kanaya still doesn’t trust you, but you can tell her you’re fine so long as you stay in your zone. Karkat swings by, asks you if the creatures remind you of your lusus. You nod, unsure if that’s what it is. You watch some of the creatures fight with each other for food, their green shells glistening in the light. The shine reminds you of something, but it’s hard to remember.

Over a hundred years have gone by, and you’ve stopped keeping track. Kanaya still checks on you a little too often for your liking, reminds you what year it is, reminds you to take care of yourself out here. You stay by yourself, talking to the creatures. You know you’re more involved in your planet than others, but they recognize you now, and it’s nice to be needed. 

It’s the year 250 when you finally see her.

Every fifty years, Karkat forces everyone to gather in one place. The first four times, you and a few others failed to show, too enrapt in your own planets to care what he has to say. But Kanaya comes to get you this time, tells you it’s important, drags you along. As you walk along the stone grounds of Karkat’s chosen planet, you begin to miss the warm comfort of the ocean, the heat of your planet’s red sun. 

“Gam?”

Sirens fire in your think pan, setting off a chain reaction. Your hands clench, your knees tighten up, your eyes squeeze closed. Memories that have been ignored rise to the surface, make your chest tighten and your lungs wheeze, and it’s hard to think, _it’s hard to think_ \--

“Gam, I got you, hey bud.” 

Her arms are around your shoulders, making you stoop to her shorter level so she can wrap you up like she did centuries before. Your hands are reaching for her shirt before you know it, your own arms as tight as you can get them. Your face in smashed in the warmth of her shoulder and her laughter is all you can hear. It’s the only laughter you’ve heard in years, and it’s the only laughter you ever want to hear again. You spin her around in the air, setting off another round of giggles and warmth. While it feels like it’s been gone too long, like an old photograph dug out from a chest, it’s almost as if nothing has changed. You melt into her as easily as you always had, and she holds you just as strong as she always will.

“Where have you been hiding out?” Ally’s saying, pulling back after you set her back down. “It feels like forever since I’ve seen you!” Reluctantly, you let her go, but keep your claws gripping onto the fabric of her shirt. She’s chosen to stay in her god tier outfit, the same outfit you first met her in. While her face has stayed freckled and young, her eyes now hold wisdom beyond belief. So much has changed since you all ascended, so many things are different.

“Just up and been on my favorite planet.” You shrug, still not letting her go even though Luke is giving you a steely glare. “Raising the motherfucking wrigglers and shit. Where you been at, sister?”

“Everywhere!” She grinned, hands now resting on your forearms comfortably. Warm. Solid. Gods, you missed her. “Me and Dirk and Karkat have been all over the place, making sure the relationships and everything on every planet are going okay. It’s mostly a bunch of primal instincts, you know, since everything is so young, but we’re putting the right instincts in places so things can evolve quicker and helping out the other species and--”

“Don’t bore him yet, Ally.” Luke finally interrupts, still giving you a wary glance. You might have lied before. In 250 years, Luke hasn’t changed one bit. “Save that for the meeting.” He’s gesturing to the archway ahead of him, signaling that they should move. You panic for a second, afraid she’s going to leave you, but she only turns, keeping her arm locked around your waist as she moves you forward. Luke settles into step with a scowl on his face and you throw your arm around her shoulders. The meeting goes well--Karkat might have actually mellowed a bit, thank the Messiahs--and Ally makes plans to swing by your planet as soon as she can.

“And don’t be a stranger, okay?” She’s laughing, giving you one more hug before she goes who knows where. “There’s more to see than just your planet. I’m sure you’ll love it. There’s this red planet out in Dave’s area where the animals are starting to communicate out loud, and they all laugh. That’s it. They’re just fucking laughing, all the time.”

You grin down at her, and she grins up at you, and you tell her, “Sister, that sounds like a motherfucking miracle.”


	4. I'll take the first train out of this town

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Ivan: Run == >**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's the backstory of how Ivan abandoned his sign and caste because someone asked for it.
> 
> i love ivan he's great

“So let me get my understanding on. You,” The troll pointed to his companion, Faygo sloshing dangerously in his bottle, “Are right in line to become the wickedest of motherfuckers, and you don’t want _no part in it_?”

Ivanos shrugged, holding his own bottle of Faygo tightly in his hands. The troll beside him howled with laughter, making Ivanos smirk as they looked out over the congregation of trolls under the big top. They were up in the top of the risers, sitting and waiting for other trolls to arrive so they could begin the service.

“Here I was,” The troll next to him continued, his sign a sloppy purple mess on the front of his shirt, “Thinking I’d come get my grateful reveries on, maybe kick the wicked shit with my good brother Ivanos, but no sir. This motherfucker here has suddenly up and decided he don’t wanna be the next Grand Highblood anymore!”

“Keep your voice down.” Ivanos hissed, glancing warily to some trolls at the bottom. They didn’t notice, holding their own conversation. “It’s not exactly the best of ideas spreading that around just yet. Besides, this is a serious issue.”

The troll next to him quieted, though his smirk didn’t fade. “See, it’s that way of talking right there that makes me think you’re serious about this.” Ivanos rolled his eyes, but Kreger continued. “You don’t speak with the whimsical tune you used to. You don’t no more seem to be the Whimsied we all thought you were set to grow up and be.”

Ivanos looked to his feet, thinking warily of his titling day, which was a mere 3 sweeps away. His title had been picked the day the Grand Highblood had chosen him as his heir, as one whose blood bled as his own. They had more than similar blood, their horns were the same shape. The same loose bend as they swept up from his head had appeared early on, and people began to talk. They said it was unheard of, that it was a sign of good things to come, of a time when the purple bloods were set to rise to the power they once held.

“Listen, bro. Is it because of that other motherfucker that was just born with your horns, too?”

Ivanos stiffened. Kreger was asking about something that absolutely no one had discussed with him, too afraid of how he’d react. Six sweeps after the miracle of the century had hatched, another one wriggled his way into the world, possessing the same exact horns that stood on Ivan’s head. 

“No, I am not concerned with him.” Kreger made a face at his formal tone of voice, but it came easier now. It felt more natural to speak like this. “It just gives me reassurance that even after I’m gone, you all will have your next heir.”

“I don’t like hearing about you up and leaving.” Kreger told him quietly. “I know we don’t agree on most things, but you’re my main motherfucker, you know?”

Ivanos nodded. True, they had nearly grown up together, being some of the only young trolls in their caste at the moment. But Ivanos saw a brighter future, one with more potential, one where anyone could live the life they wanted, uninhibited by their blood color or their heritage. He had met some friends online, had been discussing these ideas with them, had found that a world more simple than their own existed, one without the violent struggle that his own perpetuated by the ideals passed on from adult to wriggler.

“I know. You’re my best friend as well, Kreger.”

He brightened at that, his paint nearly cracking with how wide he smiled. Ivanos smirked as well, though he itched to take his own off. He was more comfortable without it, more comfortable without the large, purple symbol displayed brazenly on his chest. 

“Let’s just hope the next motherfucker after you loves to tell the same wicked stories.” Kreger toasted, and Ivanos tapped their bottles together. “Dunno what I’d do without some other motherfucker to entertain me.”

They drank, the trolls in the center ring began shouting, and Ivanos walked solemnly towards what would most likely be his last worship.

 

All being said and done, it wasn’t that hard for Ivanos to disappear. Online, he was simply known as Ivan, and once he changed his symbol, no one stopped him. He changed his name from Makara to Noster, symbolizing how he had no surname to identify with any longer. His eyes hadn’t filled yet, so he was able to walk unharassed through the small hivetowns and countryside. The only hard part was keeping up relations with his friends through his husktop.

Fran cheered him on, kept him motivated even though she had no idea what sort of religious and economic rebellion he was pulling off. Once he was well away from where anyone would search for him, he found an abandoned hive, and waited.

Once, when he was young, he had been confronted by one of the stranger trolls in his caste. Granted, everyone was a little weird during worships, inspired by the whimsey and mirthful cheers and raps, but she was stranger than the rest. She stood on the outskirts, watching the proceedings with an odd little smile on her face.

“Makes you up and wonder if there’s more, huh?” She asked him, catching him off guard. He had just stared at her, and upon catching sight of his horns, she told him, “You’re going to be a great hunter, Ivanos Makara. A hunter of the truth, a hunter of something more, a hunter of good. _You will go out and you will seek it, and you are destined to leave this world behind forever_.”

In fear, he had ran away, but sweeps later, he understood her. He had taken on a symbol from one of Fran’s own stories, the three linked circles of Orion the Hunter, and he had taken his leap of faith. He was determined to find out proof that there was more, that you didn’t have to live up to the destiny forced upon you by blood.

AD: jegus, ivan, you sound like a goddam rebel or something  
AD: planning on rallying the troops any time soon?  
IN: I have you and Fran, do I not?  
AD: hahahahaha yuo do  
AD: me and frannie are gonna be the cavalre to change the world  
AD: what woud you like us to do on our first misssion, oh leader?  
IN: I want you to prove that you are more than who your dreams say you are. That you are more than what Emma says, or even Luke.  
IN: The time is coming soon. Can you do that for me, heir?  
AD: i dunno ivan  
AD: since it seems like all i’ve got are some empty cans of soup and a stoeln lax stick, i don’t think i can do much  
IN: Those are all you need. Your true weapon lies within.  
AD: have you been reading alecs book again? the complacent learned one?  
IN: Complacency of the Learned  
IN: And no, it does not exist where I am.  
AD: okay??  
AD: well you sound like it  
AD: telling me we can do whatever as long as we believe in ourselves  
IN: You sound uncharacteristically sober.  
AD: maybe i’m trying to be that change  
AD: can’t fix the world if i’m drunk, can i?  
IN: No, you cannot.   
AD: so, ivanna change the world, where do we start?  
IN: We start with a game.  
AD: oh god not that one emma wants to play  
IN: Exactly the one Emma wants to play.  
IN: And trust me, if we play it right, we can build the world we want to live in.  
AD: promise?  
IN: Do I promise what?  
AD: you promise that if we win this game, we can be happy?

Ivan paused, looking up to the wall of the old hive. Her question had caught him off guard. They were discussing changing everything, destroying all they knew to create something better, and she was worried about whether they’d be happy? Yes, he had successfully left the predetermined life he had, and he had changed his symbol to something he felt suited him better, but was he happy? 

He thought about those he had left behind, those that would still be here to live out their miserable fates. And as he thought about them, he realized he could never truly be happy until he saw everyone living the life they wanted. And he knew, then and there, that she had found the secret to it all. 

IN: Ally  
IN: I truly believe that as long as you believe we can be happy, we will.  
IN: Your faith in ourselves and your undying optimism that things will get better is what is going to enable us to succeed.  
IN: I promise you right now, you are going to be the one that saves us all.  
AD: okay that sounds great, but i can take a nap first though, right? imma have one hell of a hangover tomorrow  
IN: Yes. One cannot save the world on no sleep.   
AD: not to mention emma wants me to read this walkthrough first  
AD: do you know how long this thing is??  
IN: How long?  
AD: very long, ivan. very.  
IN: Well, you had best get started on it. I will talk to you tomorrow.  
IN: Goodnight, heir.  
AD: hahaha you’re so weird  
AD: night ivan, love ya  
-ardorDeviant  [AD] ceased pestering insightfulNascensy  [IN] -

_“You will find a cause, and you will follow it to the ends of the universe, and that sheer determination and unbridled curiosity to find the truth will bring about the end. But in every end, there is a beginning, and I see the beginning of a new world in you, Ivanos.”_


	5. We could be immortals

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _Hey young blood, doesn't it feel like time is running out? I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix. Wearing your vintage misery--no, I think it looked a little better on me. I'm gonna change you like a remix, then I'll raise you like a phoenix._
> 
>  
> 
> **Kanaya and Karkat: Rebuild == >**

“Are you sure this will work?”

The small group that had gathered here glanced warily at each other. Sure, the foundation for the plan was solid, and each person had a part to play and they were guaranteed to play that part well, but still. It was a plan built mostly on hope, on faith that somehow everything would be the same.

Karkat looked back over to Ally, green eyes wide. He knew she could feel his anxiousness, knew she could tell what everyone in this room was thinking. She gave him a firm nod, sending a small wave of courage his way for emphasis. He smirked back, then looked over to John and Kanaya, their expressions both full of worry.

“Positive. I’ll see you tomorrow on Alternia.” 

One by one, the gods disappeared, leaving to go back to their own planets of choice or maybe to another’s. Soon, only Ally, Dave, and John remained, all looking to Karkat. He raised his eyebrows, “What do you three want?”

John and Ally looked to Dave, who sighed and told him, “You know it’s not going to be exactly the same.”

Karkat rolled his eyes, turning away. He strolled across the stone floors of his temple on this planet, slowly falling to ruins as the people grew up and grew past worshipping gods. Even if it was often forgotten and some of the ceiling was falling apart, it was still his favorite. The memories in this hall were enough to preserve it forever.

The three followed behind him, Dave adding on, “Even if we can get them physically here, there’s no guarantee they’re going to be the same trolls you knew, you know?”

“That’s why we have Ally and Terezi.” Karkat told him. “They’re in charge of the memories and personality. It’ll be fine, don’t worry.”

The three before him exchanged another look, and not for the first time, Karkat was jealous of the bond they shared. All of them human, all of them god tier from a session so long ago, all of them thinking things they were sure the other would understand but no troll ever would.

“Look, I get it. You guys think this is crazy, that we shouldn’t do it.” He turned to face them again, struggling to keep his voice under control. “But we’re going to do it. And it’s going to work, trust me. Now, go get some rest or whatever. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

With a chorus of unenthusiastic farewells, they disappeared as well, bright god tier outfits fading into the darkness of the stone ruins. Karkat watched the air for some time after, thinking over the plan in his mind a hundred times. He had thought of every angle, accounted for anything that could go weird. He was positive they could handle it.

_They might not be the same trolls you knew._

He shook his head. It didn’t matter. He had to try, for them. He had to.

 

 

“Everyone ready?”

Karkat took a steady look around the group. Everyone was here today. Some to watch, others with a role to play, but everyone was here. Nervous, excited, scared--all of their emotions were all over the place, no doubt driving Ally up the unbearably short walls. It was kind of crowded, if he was being honest, in the cavern of the Mother Grub, but this is where it needed to take place. Kanaya was standing protectively by her, watching everyone with a wary glance, as if they were going to hurt it.

One by one, everyone nodded, and the ones who were going to participate stepped forward. Ally and Roxy both sat, Ally yanking on Terezi’s sleeve until she sat next to her as well. Gamzee sat behind Ally, hands already on her shoulders. Luke, from a few feet away, shot him a glare, but stayed where he was next to the observers. Jade and Fran sat on Roxy’s other side, Kanaya falling into step beside them, followed by Jane, Jake and Karkat himself. They were in a lopsided circle with plenty of space in the middle, the people who weren’t participating on the edges of the room.

“Luke, doom check.” Karkat called over his shoulder, and Luke shrugged.

“No more than the usual bad feelings. You guys are good to go.”

“Jake? Hope assessment?”

“I am thoroughly hopeful that we will succeed.”

“Good, keep it up. Jade, any weird spacey feelings?”

“Nope! We’re good!”

“Ivan, you see anything bad happening in this timeline?”

“No, all is well.”

“Alright, okay.” Karkat took a deep breath, sitting down himself so that the others followed suit. “Everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, right?” Again, everyone nodded, and Karkat gave Terezi a worried look. “Alright, go ahead and link us up.”

Terezi closed her eyes with a grin, and a deep hum sounded in his ears. A few feet away, he saw Ally stiffen and Kanaya flinch, but after a few deep breaths, he relaxed, and felt Terezi pull his mind into the link.

It was an odd feeling, having so many people thinking in the same space. But they had to be like this, had to have this mental check on each other. Karkat needed to keep a check on everyone and make sure they were doing what they needed to, and he needed to know the exact time to tell the next person to jump in. He added his power to the mix, further strengthening the bonds between everyone joined.

“Everyone’s ready to go.” 

Karkat jumped a little. He was definitely still not used to people speaking in his mind, even if Ally and Dirk did it frequently. Terezi’s voice sounded like it not only came from next to him, but from inside him as well, but he only had a second to worry over it before he was thinking through the plan once more to everyone.

“Ally, make sure Gamzee has a good hold on you. We need to keep you and Terezi slightly apart so that only the memories and feelings we want to go in them do. Don’t let what’s happening affect your job.”

“I’m not stupid, Karkat, I know.” Ally responded gruffly, but he could tell from the tone of her thoughts that everyone else’s emotions were already getting to her.

“Alright, then, let’s do this.” He smiled at everyone. “Let’s bring back some dead friends.”

On cue, Kanaya began filtering through memories of the mother grub and how things worked on the physical end. Fran took those feelings and filtered them through the bigger picture, providing a giant canvas for Roxy to work on. She was the key to this, to bringing them back. She and Fran together would be pulling the essence of their dead friends out from oblivion, from the universe they left behind, and bringing them here. Roxy’s eyes were closed, relaxed, face almost slack. Her hands began glowing in front of her, and that’s when Karkat threw his memories into her search.

Memories of him growing up, talking to other trolls from all around his planet. His memories of meeting them for the first time, of slowly growing into the role as leader of their group. Seven trolls, seven friends, all who died too soon to see the universe they had helped create.

The glow on Roxy’s hands began switching through colors, and in the middle of the circle, seven glowing shapes grew. Each shape took on a color, a familiar color that Karkat had burned into his brain, and that was the signal for Ally and Terezi to begin the hardest part.

Bringing their actual friends into existence.

Terezi’s memories were siphoned into the shapes as they slowly grew more solid, taking on the shape of wrigglers. Karkat had expected them to do this, though. He didn’t really think they could bring them back exactly, and raising them from wrigglers, while annoying, was possible.

“Go, Ally. Get the souls in there.” Karkat prompted when Ally hesitated. “You can do it.”

A warm feeling spread through the air, and Karkat glanced over to see Jake looking over at Ally with a smile. She returned it, took a deep breath, and closed her eyes. He could feel her pulling back from the group, shutting off the connection to them so that what she was putting into the wrigglers was untainted. Terezi and Karkat’s memories continued to fuel her along, and he even felt her tap into Kanaya’s memories of them. Each wriggler glowed a little brighter the longer she focused, and Karkat could physically feel the energy in the room come to a peak. There was a loud snap, a bright flash of light, and then the connection in their minds was severed.

The group all fell back a bit, each in turn taking deep breaths and looking hopefully to the center of the circle. Karkat’s eyes adjusted to the darkness once more, and his mouth dropped open.

“Holy shit.” Roxy sighed heavily, wiping her forehead with the back of her hand. “I haven’t used my powers like that in ages.”

“I know what you mean.” Jade and Fran agreed, both giggling to themselves as they looked back to the center of the circle.

Seven wrigglers. Seven grubs. They were all there. _Rust brown, burgundy, mustard yellow, olive, blue, purple, tyrian_ \--Karkat listed them off in his head, pan firing with sounds of disbelief. They were all there. They did it.

“Is that…” Vriska took a wary step forward, reminding the people in the circle that there were more than just them in the cavern. “Is that really them?”

“As close as we could get, anyways.” Kanaya told her, placing a soothing hand on the mother grub. “They’ll be like this for a while, then they’ll need to cocoon.”

“You guys seriously hatch out of cocoons?” Dave snorted, Luke smirking as well. Terezi shot them a glare and they both quieted, and everyone looked back to the grubs, in awe of what they had done.

In the end, it was decided each grub would have a main guardian to raise it while the others cycled through to check up and offer advice. The guardians were decided based on who had the closest aspect, or the most similar personality. Tavros was given to Jake, and John and Vriska would visit often to check on his upbringing. Dave took Aradia and Luke took Sollux, while Nepeta and Equius were given to Fran and Ivan, who looked ecstatic at the opportunity. Eridan and Feferi were to be raised here by Rose and Kanaya, close to the water. Other than their main guardians, everyone would cycle around and visit, and Ally was already talking to Dave about taking some of them on vacations to other planets.

Karkat and Kanaya would regularly visit each wriggler with Ally and Terezi to make sure that each one was given the care it needed and to see if they were doing okay. Putting a soul in a body was an inexact science, as Fran kept telling them, and Alec warned the trolls more than once to not get their hopes up, that there was no guarantee they’d be even remotely similar. His words were drowned out in the sea of excitement, and everyone took to their tasks with a vigor Karkat hadn’t seen in a hundred sweeps. 

Their friends were here--grubs, to be raised by them, but here nonetheless. Their universe was flourishing, the troll planet was thriving, and Karkat had helped bring his friends back from the dead.

Finally, the empty feeling in his chest was starting to fill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, fun fact, I think I'll be writing a companion fic to Scratchbent. It's going to be a sequel, basically, following the events that just took place in this one shot here. So keep an eye out for that. (:


	6. And there's no one else I'd rather hate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Luke: Catch the spades == >**

Your name is Luke Baker and you’re not sure where you went wrong. 

You and your friends had been gods for hundreds of years now. That wasn’t the problem, you were good at it. You were in charge of the grimmer stuff, the death and darkness stuff, the stuff that no one really liked to think about. All in all, you were a pretty chill dude, and you tended to bounce back from the darker stuff easily enough so long as you had a break every once in a while.

At least, that’s what Ally had told you.

To be honest, Ally had told you a lot of things lately that you weren’t sure how to take. Like you two going on a break, for example. 

You’d been together for so long now that you thought breaks weren’t really a thing. Granted, Dave and Karkat and John and Roxy and Calliope and Jane and Terezi and Vriska had all been in an endless loop of breaking up and getting back together and dating each other then leaving them for the other, but somehow Rose and Kanaya had remained just as steadfast as ever. And you thought you and Ally were like that, you know? Steadfast and whatever. But as the planets in the universe had gotten more developed and more intricate in their designs, you both had been more and more busy with your individual tasks and hadn’t been together nearly as often as you’d like. And when you were together, you’d been fighting more often, especially lately. The fights weren’t nasty, neither of you never took it too far, but you both were bickering like you had been back when you were still playing the game. And when she left, it left a twisting in your gut and a metallic taste in your mouth.

The metallic taste was from how hard you were biting your lip, but still.

The twisting in your gut was harder to figure out. It wasn’t an unpleasant feeling, like when you were standing over a small farming village in the outer planets as their crops died out or when you were with Dave watching as the forests decayed, but it wasn’t the good twisting when you tagged along with Jane and watched as the new plants sprung up from the soil. It was different, new, like you had never heard before. And Terezi was quite possibly the worst person to talk to about this.

“I think I definitely know what this is.” She grinned over at you, legs kicking in the air from where you sat across from her on a rooftop in a village. It was dark enough that most people wouldn’t see you, and a small enough village that not a lot of people would have been out anyways. You tried to avoid this planet in general. They were far different than the other creatures you looked over.

You rolled your eyes. “Terezi, if you try and pitch me some dark fantasy--”

“Puns intended?” She teased, leaning even further forward and wiggling her eyebrows.

“Dammit, Terezi--”

She cackled, cutting you off mid swear. You sighed and fell backwards, laying back on the roof with your feet hanging off the edge. The stars above you were just coming out, and you could barely make out the planet in the eastern sky, blinking into existence as you watched the sky grow darker. Ally was there, doing god knows what with her newest charge. Well, not _hers_ , technically. But she was babysitting or something like that, and that’s why you had gone to see Terezi and not been shooting across the hot springs of Elferno with Ally.

“Okay, okay, seriously though.” She snickered, calming herself down. After another deep breath, she was ready to talk. “You fight a lot, you don’t agree on barely anything, and every time after you fight, you can’t stop thinking about her. What else is there to discuss?”

“You know I still don’t really believe in that quadrant bullshit.” You finally sighed, still avoiding her gaze, which was creepily pointed directly at your face. 

“It’s not bullshit.” Terezi smirked. “It’s a more well-balanced way to sort out your romantic interactions. Why settle for one when you can have four, am I right?” She tossed a pebble your way, ignoring your annoyed sigh. “Jokes aside, it’s all around a lot more sensible. You have your romantic typical ‘I love everything about you’ nonsense, and you have your ‘You’re kind of crazy but I can help’ best friend, you have the one who can mediate the hell out of whatever, and you have the one you hate to love and love to hate. And it’s pretty obvious to me which one you and Ally are swinging towards.”

Not gonna lie, you tried to avoid quadrant talk whenever possible. Not that you really saw a lot of the trolls anyways. The only ones that talked to you were Vriska, Terezi and Ivan, although that had changed a few years back once it was decided that you would be in charge of raising the newly created Sollux.

Having the doom aspect, it was guessed that you two would have the most in common, but that couldn’t be further than the truth. Sollux loved computers and hacking and spaceships and lots of other things that you just generally didn’t understand. Not to mention, he had these different colored eyes that did weird things when you didn’t remind him to put his glasses back on when he was younger. The only thing you had in common was the weird voices you heard when something bad was about to happen around you. 

But you had tonight off, Sollux was over at Aradia’s with Dave and Karkat, and Ally was watching Eridan, and you had not expected to be sitting on the roof of some distant village discussing your relationships with Terezi. 

“We’re not...kiss mates, or whatever you called it.” You sigh, sitting up finally. You leaned your elbows on your knees, frowning at the dirt. The dirt was twenty feet away, and it wouldn’t judge you. The dirt wouldn’t tell you your relationships are insignificant and one dimensional. So what if Ally had another quadrant filled while you refused to believe in it? “We don’t hate each other.”

“Kismesitude does not equal hate, Luke.” You turned your head at her tone, suddenly serious. She was staring directly at you, eyes blank but still piercing through you. “You wish you could love them, you fight all the time like you do hate them, and you wish you could love them through it, but there’s just something about them that keeps you from that final plunge to flush. That’s why so many couples vacillate between the two. You’d love them if it weren’t for a couple vital things, but you can’t look past it, so you fight. And that’s what a kismesis is.”

You froze looking at her, eyes wide. “I…” You trailed off, unsure of what to say, Something about it struck home, got a little too close to a feeling that had been eating away at the back of your mind. She smiled slowly, but a flash of pink from behind you stopped you before you could say anything.

You turned, and there stood Ally, cheeks a deeper pink than normal and hood up over her face, the end of it rustling in the light wind that blew over the village as the suns finally set. Her hood shadowed her eyes, hiding them from you, and that should have been the first warning that something was different. However, you were willing to admit you weren’t the most observant of humans, so.

Terezi snorted softly as she caught wind of Ally’s arrival. “I’ll leave you two alone.” In a flash of teal, she was gone, leaving you staring at Ally with a confused expression. Not that you were the expert on emotions, because that was definitely her, the _goddess of heart_ and whatnot, but she seemed to be thrumming with something. You couldn’t pin down exactly what, but it definitely wasn’t something positive.

After a couple moments where Ally did nothing but stare at you, you finally cleared your throat. “I thought you were watching Eridan tonight?”

“Just got done.”

Her sentence was short and blunt, making you frown. She only did that when she was frustrated or thinking. From the way she was staring at you, you were hoping it was the latter.

“Rose and Kanaya get back early with Feferi?”

She sighed and looked away, making you think that wasn’t the right question to ask. How could you have done something wrong already? You literally said two things! It’d been weeks, maybe months since you talked. Or a year. Who knew, time always went so much faster when you had eternity ahead of you. This ‘break’ Ally had put you on was definitely messing with your head.

“You’re tense.”

You looked back up to her, unaware that your eyes had drifted away to a point just behind her. You squared your shoulders, swallowing before you said, “No I’m not.”

Her eyes widened slightly as she looked back over to you. “Are you seriously trying to tell me you aren’t? Jegus, Luke, I can smell it from here.”

“You can’t smell emotions.” You mumbled defensively, but let out a sigh anyways. You finally stood, setting your stance. “What makes you think I’d be tense?”

“Uh, besides the fact that we haven’t spoken in almost a _sweep,_ not much.” She snorted, and you frowned. Nearly 900 years had passed, and Ally had somehow not changed at all. She continued, “Not to mention it’s literally seeping so hard out of you that it almost has its own color. Piss green is a lovely shade on you, Luke.”

You blushed at the statement, absentmindedly running a hand over your shirt before arguing, “Better than a pink that makes my hair look like strawberries in comparison! God, you _are_ like those Strawberry Shortcake dolls, except worse.”

Ally dropped her mouth open, and you almost laughed in triumph. Dave had confirmed recently that even though you were in a new universe, the new human planet would in fact be manufacturing Strawberry Shortcake dolls in the future, which Vriska had been quick to compare to Ally. And if one thing pissed Ally off more than weird dolls, it was Vriska insulting her. 

Wait, why did you want to piss her off? It’s not like that was your goal, it just kind of happened. You meant to say--

Before you really registered what was happening, Ally was running at you, bright green sword out and in her hands, tip pointed directly at your heart. You barely had time to access your own sword before she was upon you, blades clashing in a loud clang of metal on metal.

She was shorter than you, and was a miles better swordsman, and definitely a lot more agile. While your tactic had always been more of a push through type, years as a god have given you time to practice, and you were much better than you used to be. But even with the extra experience, Ally out-parried you with ease, driving you closer and closer to the edge of the roof as her blade slashed through the night.

Your heel hit the edge, sending a bit crumbling to the ground. She aimed another thrust towards your dominant arm, and as you twisted to defend, you slipped, about to fall to the ground--

\--And she grabbed your shirt, swinging you back around and to the ground, skidding to a stop on your knees with her sword pressed to your throat. It was pressing dangerously hard, threatening to draw blood even though you couldn’t die, her green eyes blazing down at you with some sort of unleashed frustration that you hadn’t seen in years.

So you kissed her.

One hand whipped around you to grab the back of her neck, effectively both shoving her hood back down her head and pulling her close to you. Your lips crashed together, firm and heated and with her breath huffing out against your blushing face. The most surprising of all was that she didn’t try and stop you. She kissed back eagerly, shoving you further back so you were resting on your heels and most of her weight was against you.

After a couple minutes, you pulled away, one hand on her hip and the other holding her hair scarily tight. She still had the sword pressed against you, and her other hand was on your chest, but her eyes were alight with the satisfaction you had glimpsed so long ago.

“Terezi was right.” You breathed, eyes widening in surprise.

“Excuse me?” Ally countered, sword pressing ever tighter to your throat as a wave of jealousy rushed off of her.

“Nothing.” You laughed, leaning forward to kiss her once more. You smirked against her lips, smirked as she kissed you forcefully and pulled you just a bit closer than she had before. Of course, it made sense now. She had always scared you a bit, this ball of fire and passion and love that you had never comprehended. She was the edge of the sword, slicing and flying and everywhere you couldn’t be. You hated how she always went off to help other people when you were right there, hated how she always watched with interest when someone else was saying anything. You hated her ignoring you, you hated her stupid red hair, and you hated the way the heat of her body made you feel more alive than you had felt in centuries.

Terezi was right. It wasn’t really hate.

“So, if I’m guessing right, this is a spades kind of thing, right?” You asked later, when her sweaty forehead was pressed to your bare chest and her sword was out of arm’s reach. The stars still shone brilliantly above you, a new bruise was forming on your neck--in equal parts from her sword and her teeth--and she hadn’t left yet. She was here, she was with you, and the twisting in your gut had finally loosened with understanding.

“The fact that you even have to ask is appalling. Glad you finally caught on, though,” She muttered, shifting on your chest. “Now shut up. I want to sleep.”

You smiled to yourself, giving her a shoulder a light shove as you watched the sky move slowly above you.

Your name was Luke Baker, you weren’t sure where you had gone wrong, but right now, it all felt right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> man so who else saw this coming from 5000 miles away
> 
> (or maybe just even in part one because ivan and ally talk about it right away lol)


	7. We are the greatest pretenders in the cold morning light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Alec: Guide the God of Blood == >**

“Okay, while I see where you were maybe attempting to go with that, I gotta put out there that that’s fucking stupid.”

“Karkat.” Alec groaned again, rolling his eyes. “I understand you think it’s stupid, but it needs to happen. You can’t just let this family fall apart like that, the entire planet’s economy would fall to ruins.”

“I don’t care! The emperor's a fucking prick!” Karkat flung his hands out on either side of him, pacing the walls of the temple. They were invisible to the priests there paying homage or placing offerings on the alter. Alec had made sure none of them would hear Karkat either, as he knew this sort of outburst was coming. “He’s a pompous bulge filled to the brim with righteous noble knowledge and this is what he fucking does with that power? I say he deserves what he’s got coming! Tell Luke to do his fucking worst!”

“Karkat, you heard his son. If he does split the family like he’s intending, this will literally affect everyone on this planet. I know this is your favorite, don’t lie to me. Do you really want to doom this whole planet just because you think the emperor is a jerk?” Alec raised his eyebrows at Karkat, knowing what his answer would be.

Karkat, in turn, glared at Alec. It was a glare that had made hundreds of thousands of rulers in their universe tremble, but to Alec, it was just one that said Karkat didn’t want to admit that Alec was right.

“Have I ever told you how much I fucking hate it when you’re right?” Karkat cried, exasperated. “I should have just gone to Gamzee. He would have told me to throw some dust on them or something equally as ridiculous.”

Alec grinned at him, shrugging as he leaned back. “What can I say? As they head of the Golden Trinity, I gotta know what I’m talking about.”

“Oh, Jegus, don’t you dare bring up that stupid story the mortals made up.” Karkat rolled his eyes, remaining standing as Alec took a seat on a stone ledge. “That’s almost as ludicrous as the story that says Gamzee created the whole universe from a fucking painting.”

Alec laughed, and Karkat glared at him. Wiping some dirt off his sleeve, Alec told him, “You gotta admit, that’s a pretty cool legend. I mean, Ally, Jake and I do make a good team. Why not have a cool team name?”

“Because you don’t get a team name because you three--who just _happen_ to be related--also just _happen_ to have control over things that almost directly influence each other.” Karkat crinkled his nose. “Love, hope, and foresight. _The key to a healthy relationship._ Ooo, big fucking deal. It’s stupid to pair people up anyways. Anyone can do that, Ally should get a real job.”

Alec grinned. “Are you still bitter about the story that says you and Ally birthed the rest of us?”

“No!” Karkat shrieked, and for the third time, Alec was glad he silenced their conversation. “Sure, love and blood are great together, and okay, maybe we do hang out a lot, but that doesn’t make us human married!” Alec leaned back with laughter again, and Karkat sighed, staring down at the floor.

“Whatever. I’m over it. I’m gonna go see what Kanaya’s up to.”

“Oh, that reminds me of another story!” Alec laughed, “Remember when the mother of space merged with the blood of life to create the creatures down below--”

Karkat flipped Alec off, making him laugh again before he disappeared in a flash of dark red, leaving Alec sitting alone in the temple.

The stories of the mortals were Alec’s favorite part of the universe, if he was being honest. Each culture had their own stories about their religion, and each variation was better than the last. There were stories that stated the god of time had grown lonely and created the universe, stories that told of a murderous purple giant who had only bowed to love, stories that the stars in the sky were a gift from the day to the night (Rose and Kanaya, respectively. The stories about Rose and Kanaya were the best). 

Alec raised his hand in front of him, and with a flash of pale yellow light, a large leather book appeared in his palm. It held nearly all of the stories that had been created about the gods, and he treasured it above all else. 

_“The Gods Above and Their Tales.”_ He whispered to himself, a small smile on his lips. “What do you say, worshipers? Shall I read a few aloud?” He grinned at the silent room and opened to the first page, pages cracking beneath his fingers. The first page he stopped on was a story from Murteron, a purple planet with green, hard-skinned creatures. 

“How the Gods Came to Be, Part One. In the beginning, there was but one god in the vast expanse of space. His name was Gamzee, and he was an artist. But even with all of this beauty surrounding him, he grew lonely. And so he painted a companion in the softest colors he knew, and she was his opposite in every way: Where he was angry, she was calm. Where he destroyed, she created. And so the God of Rage knew the Goddess of Love, and their first painting together was a masterpiece that grew into the planet we know today...”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, if you liked this one, go read the latest installment in the scratchbent universe, Guide to the Gods. (:


	8. Give her love, and she will die

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Ally: Stop her == >**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> here's some more of ally and emma accompanied by the lyrics from "emma" by imagine dragons

_Emma stood in front of me, tellin' me what I should be._

"Then why haven't you found your quest bed?"

"I didn't have one!"

"That's not true!" Ally shrieked, taking a threatening step forward. "I knew where your bed was this whole fucking _time!"_

This seemed to make Emma stop, eyes widening ever so slightly. "What?" She breathed.

"I knew where it was the whole time." Ally deflated, heartbroken. "I found it on my quest, I found it but I couldn't tell you because I was afraid of what you'd do if you ascended. You were already so dangerous and so secretive that I decided to keep a secret of my own. But you didn't learn to trust your friends, you didn't learn that there's consequences to your actions, and you didn't learn to trust in me!" She looked down, expression dark. "And when you destroyed the gates, I just knew. I knew there was no hope for you. You wouldn't learn."

_Jackie loves to run and hide: give her love and she will die._

Emma was silent, and Ally whispered again, "Please, Emma. Please. I don't want to do this. Come back to us, get rid of that troll. I know you remember the poem, I know you can do it. Come back. Don't make me do this."

Emma stood slowly, and for a second, Ally's chest tightened with hope. But then Emma was reaching for her sword, shouting, "You kept my destiny from me!" She lunged forward and Ally dove out of the way, leaping into the air as soon as she could to get away from Emma. The blue glow had flooded her eyes once more, and she continued to slash at the air, trying to get at Ally.

_Calling me, oh my oh my._

Ally swallowed hard. The girl she knew was gone, this time. Gone for good.

"I'm so sorry, Emma." She whispered, raising her hands and aiming at Emma. "I'm so sorry."

_Cross my heart and hope to die._

A pink glow spread around her hands just as the robots began to fall around them. A similar glow was mirrored in Emma’s chest, making her jaw go slack. Ally was inside her heart, inside her emotions, swimming around in all of the hatred and the anger and the sadness of being taken advantage of. With a tug, she took ahold of Emma's heart, and reached into her soul.

Emma shrieked, and three more robots fell from the air, sparking. Dave cut down another robot and looked over to Ally, who was now completely encased in the pink glow. Emma was surrounded in what looked like the ghost of a fire, whipping into the air around her.

_Bourbon streets and bicycles, holding you in carnivals..._

The boardwalk, the carnival, the street fair they had visited when they were ten. Emma's mom was yards away, talking to some vendor or another, and Ally and Emma were sharing a massive bucket of cotton candy.

"It's on your nose!" Emma giggled, reaching out to poke Ally's cheek. Ally, in return, crossed her eyes and stuck her tongue out, attempting to lick it off. Emma laughed harder, nearly falling sideways off the bench. Ally caught her, grinning at her with all the happiness in the world.

"Come and get it!" She shouted, and Emma only had another moment to laugh before Ally was shoving her face at her, smearing the sticky mess across Emma's cheeks.

_Baby, is my love too old for you? Baby, is my love too old for you?_

It was a deep feeling, a familiar one, that clicked into place in Ally's chest. It was the feeling that no matter what universe she was in, no matter how far apart she and Emma were, they'd find each other, and they'd be together. 

_Because Emma, I'm for you. Emma, I'm for you._

One more tug, another shriek from Emma that brought her to her knees, and Ally could see the beginnings of her soul start to leave her body. Bits and pieces were flying out into the pink fire that surrounded her, bright green spurts that disappeared as soon as they hit the open air. With every piece that faded away, Ally felt it pass through her as if a bit of her own heart was leaving with it. Memories assaulted her, one after another, and she was forced to relive them all anew.

_Dinner bells and loaded gun, innocence is bound to run._

Fran called everyone to dinner, an unusual habit that the six of them had fallen into since they all began living in Emma's house together in the game. Ally, now trapped on the planet, was growing restless at the routine, bored with doing the same thing every day. But Fran wanted to have 'family dinners', and how could anyone say no to Fran?

"Ally." Emma greeted cordially, voice cold.

Ally glared across the table, feeling as if she wanted to run away, far away, be anywhere but here. She could feel the barely repressed anger from Emma's side of the table. It mirrored inside of her, turning right around and boiling as she thought of the gates. "Emma."

_Enemies are playing from, but don't you touch that golden sun._

How the hell were they ever supposed to get to Skaia now?

_Innocence and sentiment is owned by hope, it's where you're at._

Another memory whips by, and Ally's staring down at a 12 year old Emma, cookie dough covering her hands as they roll them into little balls to put them on the tray.

"They aren't going to stay ball shaped." Emma huffs, though a smile is on her face. Despite her doubts, she's following along with Ally's plan, always running along after her with a smile.

"Who cares? They'll still taste good!" Ally has cookie dough up to her elbows, and Emma squeals when Ally mashes their hands together in a messy high five. Their fingers slot together perfectly, she thinks, blushing a bit as she watches Emma's nose crinkle at the mess.

It feels a lot like coming home after a long journey, being here with Emma.

_Baby, is my love too old for you?_

A 13 year old Emma, huddling close under the blankets at a sleepover, eyes lit up despite how dark it is. They're sharing secrets about the people in their middle school, wondering what high school will be like. Emma says she's not worried because she knows that they'll always be best friends, and Ally feels like melting.

It feels a lot like finding the last piece to a puzzle that's been sitting unfinished for years.

_Because Emma, I'm for you._

Emma's spinning away from them, Alec's blood still dripping from her sword as Ally screams loud enough to shatter the ground.

_Hell and silence, I can fight it, I can fight it._

Emma's stabbing the sword through her chest, and even as she had murder in her eyes, Ally knew she could forgive her.

_Hell and silence, I can fight it, I can fight it._

It felt a lot like she was flying, when she was younger. It felt a lot like running through an endless field with the sun warm above your head and the flowers beneath your feet.

As Emma falls to her knees in front of her, it feels a lot like not being able to swim, now. The memories are drowning her, and she wishes it could have happened any other way.

Ally still forgives her.

She still _loves_ her. After all of it, she still does.

_Hell and silence, I can fight it, I can fight it._

That old ache, the familiar settling of her heart in stone, knowing this is how it's supposed to be forever. Her and Emma, together against the world. How could it all go so _wrong?_

_Hell and silence, I can fight it, I can fight it._

“Emma, oh God, stay with me, Emma, I’m so sorry.”

Emma’s breath rattled in her throat as her deep blue eyes looked up to Ally. Ally choked on a sob, pushing the blonde hair out of her friend’s face. “Please, please, no…”

Emma reached upwards and Ally immediately grabbed her hand, clenching tightly onto it. Even as she pleaded, she knew she had done too much damage. There was no coming back from having that much of your soul torn apart. With the smallest of smiles, Emma whispered, “I forgive you.” Her last breath hissed out, Emma’s head went limp, and Ally’s vision whited out.

_Because Emma, I'm for you. Emma, I'm for you._


	9. So maybe tonight I'll be the libertine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **John: Celebrate == >**

The celebrations that came around almost every year were the best part about being a god, if he was honest!

Sure, there were the crazy powers they all had, and the stories written about them (Alec and Rose loved those), and all the cool things he got to be in charge of once you all really started going, but those were just things to _do_ , you know?

John whipped around in the air above the festival again, smiling brightly even though he was just a few whispers of a breeze at the moment. The hot air from the fire carried him up, up, higher and higher into the night sky. He whipped back downwards, spiraling around and whipping around the hair of his friends, all of whom were in various disguises. Ally and Dirk had honestly put very little thought into their disguises, but that almost seemed like half the fun! _Just how little could they put on and still not be found out?_ Of course, Calliope and Kanaya would hardly let them go wearing their regular god outfits, so they just had on large swathes of red and pink fabric, blending into the crowd but still looking a bit out of place as the celebration went on.

Large tables were covered in various dishes made by the people who lived in this city, currently in a "Roman-esque Golden Age" according to Rose, and the people were gathered in front of the temple dedicated to the gods of love. These aliens in particular had very specific mating cycles, somewhat reminiscent of the trolls, but still foreign enough that Karkat didn't know how to explain it without blushing. Dirk, as usual, said nothing, and _as usual_ , Ally played along through some unspoken connection that the two had. So, seeing as how they were super important to this planet, the celebration was crazy big! They obviously wanted to appease the gods of love, and it was the other gods who got to reap the rewards.

Ally caught his eye as he dove by again, still able to sense him even though he was currently intangible. In response, he stuck his tongue out at her, and she rolled her eyes even though she couldn't see him.

Coming down far away enough from the party that he wouldn't be noticed, John zapped back into being, readjusting the robes that Kanaya had draped him with as well. Before he could come around the corner building, however, the breeze trickled across the back of his neck, reminding him of breath almost as familiar to him as his own. With a grin plastered on his face, he turned around, going instead in search of his best friend.

Well, all the gods were almost best friends by now, but this guy was still the best!

"Dave!" John shouted, making his feet land firmly back down on the ground in case a mortal walked by. "Why aren't you at the party?"

Dave turned to look up at him, face betraying almost nothing underneath his shades. But from here, John could see where the light caught his face, giving him a glimpse at the bright red eyes behind the shades. "Eh, not really my scene, Egbert."

"Why, too cool for it?" John smirked, coming around to ploink himself down on the stairs next to him. Dave's shoulders were hitched up just an inch, but it was enough to make John pause, furrowing his brows. "Dave, you alright?"

"Yeah." He responded automatically, and John could see his shoulders tense. "Perfect. The party's great."

"Why did you bother coming if you weren't even going to be there?" John rolled his eyes, looking back towards the end of the street that was brighter, orange light bleeding through the darkness from the fires at the celebration. "There's tons of food! I know Ally always brings you those weird biscuit things from here, so I know you like those. And everyone's dancing! Jade even got Karkat to come out--" Dave flinches again, and John can feel his eyes widen on his face. " _Ohhh._ Oh."

He can tell Dave's rolling his eyes, so he decides to interrupt before Dave can go on some rambling tangent.

"Did something happen between you two? I mean, of course, you don't have to tell me! I'm just here for you. You know, as bros and all. We're best bros, so if you need someone to talk to, I'm here. Then again, we can talk about other things if that's what you want! A distraction, or something." John almost wanted to smack himself. In trying to prevent Dave's rambling, he instead started. Smooth.

Dave snorted softly, looking back down to his feet. He had shifted back to more normal clothes, nothing like the weird drapey-things of the celebration. "It's cool. Don't worry about it."

John paused a moment, then said softly, "If it's making you act like this, then I'm gonna worry."

Dave sighed, and John sat beside him, waiting for a bit. He could still hear the echoes of conversation, music and laughter from the celebration, providing a little background music for the silence they now sat in. He can hear Jade shrieking in laughter from here, and decides that maybe this isn't the best place for them to be sitting if they're going to be talking about feelings--

"He called it off. I think." 

Dave broke the silence, and John turned his head to face him again. He could almost see the gears whirling in Dave's head, struggling between _eughhh feelings talk_ and _might as well talk about it_. It was a struggle he'd seen him go through quite a few times. Being best bros for almost 300 years will definitely do that to you!

"You think?" John pressed, trying to encourage him to talk more, and Dave nodded with another exaggerated sigh.

"Yeah. I think. I don't know. Like, we've discussed the quadrant thing, and he knows I still don't totally get it, but he tried to use that to explain it anyways." He waved his hands in front of him, slowly opening up his posture as he talked. "According to him, our relationship or whatever has changed because of everything that's happening, and he's starting to feel more pale for me than flushed. He also said he can tell I've been feeling the same and that my 'affections are going in different directions' people-wise, and that maybe it's better to go to moorail-leigance or whatever from here on out. As far as I know, pale is the one where you just jam things out, right? Feelings jams. Confessionals. Bro to bro." Dave didn't even wait for John to confirm before he barreled on. "So now he's not really feeling the flushed thing, which was all the romantic jazz with kissing and stuff. And of course, fucking smooth asshole that I am, I brought up the kissing thing, and apparently we can do that still, it's just going to be different than it was before. And now he's all fine with it and he thinks I'm fine with being palebros or whatever but I'm not because every time we do the pale thing, it just feels like he's leading me on." He huffs out a huge breath, leaning back more on the stairs to balance on his elbows. "I think I still want the flushed thing, or whatever. But he doesn't. And so I feel like I'm going to have to call off the pale thing, because it hurts too much to keep it going."

John wait a beat in case he decides to continue again, but he doesn't, so John lets out a sympathetic sigh as well. "Jeez, Dave. That's rough."

"No shit." He snorts in response, but John can see him tensing up again. "Sucks, to be honest. It sucks a whole lot."

"Did you tell him that?" John poked his arm, then instead put a hand on it, deciding that would be more of a caring gesture. Dave leaned into his hand a bit, seeming to relax under the gesture. "Not that I'm the expert on moirails or anything, but I think that's what feelings jams are for. To figure out your feelings." 

"But I can't talk about the shit that has to do with him! That's just weird." Dave shrugs, then sighs again, but still doesn't move away from his hand. "I dunno. I guess I'll have to, in order to fix things, right?"

John shrugged, looking back towards the party. "Seems like it! You know who you could talk to, though?"

Dave stiffened beside him, even before he said their names. "Seeing as Ally and Dirk _are_ the gods of love, all kinds, you know--"

"No, no, nope." Dave actually stood up then, pulling John up as well. "End of that conversation. No way am I talking about it with them." John giggled, and Dave rolled his eyes again, although this time John could see it as Dave flashed back into his celebration clothes. Without his glasses on, Dave's red eyes looked into John's, softening a bit in the moonlight. John thought he liked Dave without his glasses a lot better. It almost made him seem more human.

With a giggle, John thought to himself, _Not human, god-like!_

Dave smirked at John's laugh, eyes crinkling a bit at the sides before he grabbed John's hand in his and turned them towards the end of the party. "Come on, we've got some cookie things to eat."

With a skip in his step, John hurried after him, and, as they walked into the celebration, let the laughter carry him into the night.

 

Two weeks later, Dave appeared behind John on one of the outer planets, nearly scaring John to death.

"I did it."

John, who had barely just recovered from the shock, rubbed his chest. "Did what?"

"Called it off with Karkat." Dave answered simply, face a mask under those shades that were seated in their usual place on the bridge of his nose. "We're just bros, now."

"Oh. Uh," John frowned a bit, floating a few feet above Dave. "Congrats?"

They were on a mostly uninhabited planet, the only lifeforms plants and water plants. It was too cold for most things to live here, but the temperature didn't affect the gods the way it would any other creature. Although, the more John visited, the more he thought he could pick out tiny organisms trying to evolve. He'd have to bring Jane back to be sure.

"Thanks." Dave shuffled his feet, and for once in his life, was quiet. John watched him for a moment, confused. 

"So, uh, is there something else...?" John finally asked as the silence stretched on. Dave continued tapping his toes in some sort of rhythm on the grass, and John pulled his legs up so he was sitting cross legged in midair, just a couple feet away from Dave. "Or are you just coming to visit?"

"Both. Neither. Shit." Dave rubbed his face, pushing his glasses out of the way for a moment as he scratched. "I, uh, shit." He sighed heavily, throwing his head back for a few more seconds before looking at John again. "Are we just bros."

It didn't totally sound like a question. More of a confirmation, really. So John cocked his head and asked intelligently, "What?"

Dave groaned again. "Fuckin' hell. Always fucking up real life convos, just spit it out, dude, it's John." John wasn't totally positive he was supposed to hear that, so he decided to pretend Dave had just said it in his head.

"Ooooookay. So." Dave held his hands out in front of him, as if he were about to brace himself physically for what he was about to say. "So we've been best bros for like a thousand years now, and we've always been tight, right? Right." Once again, Dave wasn't waiting for John to confirm or deny. "And I guess I always kind of wondered and apparently that made Karkat wonder too, but he was apparently hells of better at picking up on the signs than I was, which I guess is what made it so easy for him? And Rose knew, too? Like, what the fuck? But so he brought it up when we totally broke up, like all four quadrants break up, a quadruple break up, and it made me think again and I think he's right. So I know you've got your--your thing, or whatever, that makes you not totally down to get down if you know what I'm saying, but that's fine! Totally fine, I can dig, I'm good. But all of that put together is just a giant pot of--no, no, no metaphors. Just words. Whatever. Just. Are we just bros?"

John blinked at him for a moment, trying to use the Breeze to catch the tail ends of that giant jumble of words Dave had just spoken. Unfortunately, the words were gone, and John had to try and process it with his own devices. 

Okay, first and foremost, they've always been bros, _duh_ , that was a universal constant pretty much! But Dave knew about his thing? But no, no, not focusing on that yet. So Karkat knew too--

He could see Dave start shifting his feet. Apparently his blank stare wasn't all that reassuring.

But...why would Dave have said all that? Unless he was--Did he want to be more than bros? Was he--Did he?

267 years is a long time to think about things about yourself. 267 years is a long time to think things about other people, too. Specifically, the people you're close with. And want to be closer to.

Oh boy.

Dave opened his mouth again, obviously panicking that John hadn't said anything yet, and John blurted out the first thing he could think of.

"Allysaidit'sasexual."

Dave closed his mouth again, then croaked, "What."

John's face was definitely burning. Sheesh, the convo he had had with Ally about it was bad enough, and it was weirder talking to Roxy about when she had wanted to--but this? Ohhhh boy. Why was telling Dave this suddenly so hard?

"Ally, uh, said it was called asexual. It's, um, a term for people like me. With my thing." John gestured to himself unhelpfully, and Dave was frozen, still staring at him, and now it was John's turn to panic. "Not saying I'm totally opposed to the idea! I asked her how I could be--be that, and still kind of want to--you know, with people, and she said there's a whole spectrum and I can be whatever and maybe I'm grey?"

"You're grey?" Dave obviously looked John over. "You're blue."

"Uggghhhhh." John's face was burning, and he could feel the breeze tugging on him. He hated hated hated talking about this. "No. Like. Grey asexual. Sometimes I want to, sometimes I don't, depends on the situation and person and other stuff. It's totally a thing."

"Oh." Dave nodded, but kind of quickly, like he was trying to pretend he knew all this. "Yeah. Okay. Cool."

John blushed further, then suddenly another point of Dave's speech stood out. "Wait, just bros? Do you mean--are you--"

"It was just a question!" Dave shouted, voice just a little too high pitched to be normal. He had obviously picked up Karkat's habit of shrieking when he was flustered. "You don't have to decide, it was just a thought--"

"Decide?!"

"Oh, jegus." Dave sat down on the ground, face covering his hands. "We're so fucking terrible at this."

"Got that right." John wheezed, and lowered himself to the ground so that he and Dave were level. He watched him for a few minutes, the blush on his cheeks steadily reducing to a more normal pink. "Are you okay?"

"Fine." Dave groaned, then looked at John over the rim of his glasses. "As fine as you can be while droppin' bombs about having a crush on your best bro."

"A crush?!" John sat up straighter, sending Dave groaning again. John rushed out, "No no no it's okay, it's fine--" and grabbed Dave's hands away from his face before he could bend his sunglasses anymore. "You have a crush on me?"

Hands caught up in John's, Dave floundered for a bit before blushing himself and admitting, "Uh. Yeah. Big fat one."

"Flushed crush?"

Dave rolled his eyes, "Not with the fucking quadrants again--" And John laughed, cutting him off.

"Stop, I was teasing!" He grinned again, still holding onto Dave's hands, although less tightly, and it did nothing for the swooping feeling in his stomach to notice that Dave had stopped trying to pull them away. "It's cute. Hehehe. Crushes."

"We're not fucking twelve, Egbert, we can talk about crushes like grown men." Dave told him, and when John only grinned, Dave sighed again. "So, yeah, there it is, all spread out on a platter for your perusal. I, Dave, have a crush on you, Major Dorkbert. Happy?"

"Very." John responded without hesitation, making Dave's grin snap back up to him. A gaze passed between them, and with that, understanding. Dave's shoulders slouched a bit, relaxing, and he flipped his hands around so that instead of John death-gripping his wrists, their fingers were interlaced. John grinned even wider, leaning a bit closer to Dave.

"Yeah. Very happy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> honestly it was just a matter of time before i wrote some johndave


	10. When all the flashing lights fade away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath.

"And...done!" Jade lifted the hammer in triumph, turning around to face everyone else. "The last nail in the last building--at least for now, anyways--is done!"

Everyone gathered cheered, some more enthusiastically than others. Nevermind that none of them had any idea how to really build a house, or how to lay out a community, or any of that--they figured it out. And John was proud of it.

It'd been only a couple years since the door opened, and a few of them were finally starting to settle down--somewhat. A lot of them, the trolls especially, rarely stayed in one place for long, choosing to deal with their leftover battle wounds from the game by continually moving around and messing with the planets. Jade, John, and Jane had been the ones who suggested maybe making one planet as a sort of base for everyone to come back to.

That was when they found the mayor.

When the door opened, it opened with gales of space fire and weird time feelings and basically warped everyone six ways to Sunday. It had taken a while for everyone to find each other (almost a week--who knew the universe they created was so _big?_ ) and Jane was still upset that maybe her father hadn't made it through the door even though he was there at the end. But Vriska was here, and she hadn't even been anywhere near the platform, so how did that work? Sad, they all descended to the nearest planet to hang out for a bit even though none of them were really tired anymore (god powers were so weird, even beyond the ones they had received upon ascending) and to regroup.

It was Dave who noticed him first, of course.

There was a small rustle in the bushes, but since most of them were talking, no one really noticed. Then suddenly, a weird sort of trilling noise, and Dave whipped around, shades nearly flying off his face as he spluttered, "What the fuck, is that the Mayor?"

The Mayor came rolling out of the bushes, some weird green leaf clutched in his hands that he must have found on the planet, and instantly, the six of them gathered there had descended upon the mayor, all screaming and hugging him. Once they had found him, they knew everyone else must have come through the door as well, and it was only a matter of time before they found them.

Renewed, Jane and Roxy went off on a search for Jane's father while Jade went looking for any of the sprites. After a year, nearly everyone that had ever survived the game session--Davepetasprite, Jasprosesprite, Dad, the Mayor, PM, _all of them_ \--were there! So, on the weird green planet that was the closest thing to earth that Jade and Fran could locate, they began building a city even the Mayor could be proud of.

Since Terezi, Jake and Vriska were still off catapulting through space as a coping mechanism, and Gamzee was still MIA, and Jade, Fran, Dirk, Ally, Karkat, Jane and Roxy were all busy making sure all the planets had life growing on them, and Kanaya and Rose were busy trying to make a new troll planet, that left the rest of them to build the city.

John glanced around at those gathered here--the various sprites, the few carapacians, Dad, Luke, Alec, Ivan, Dave--and then to the Mayor, and shrugged. "Well, this is everyone we have available! What would you like us to do first, Mr. Mayor?"

Their new godly powers since coming through the door, as far as they could tell anyways, included teleportation, the ability to breathe in space, the ability to turn invisible and block out sound, and some sort of feeling that told them when another god was nearby. Apparently, the sprites retained their vast knowledge of everything--and their vagueness attribute, much to Dave's chagrin--and everyone else received immortality as well. Granted, no one could tell if the Heroic or Just deaths were still a thing, but no one wanted to risk it. But as the days and years passed and no one aged, John could let go of the worrying feeling in his gut that they'd lose Dad again.

That was a big problem for him and Roxy, actually. As it turned out, they both had this massive complex with the thought that they were going to lose everyone at any moment, and they grew close as they worked through it together. It took a lot of constant reassurance from their friends, but no one teased them about it. After all, they were all going through stuff of their own.

Dirk and Jake had resolved their problems, and although Jake was still gallivanting through the planets in a massive effort to avoid anyone and everyone, Dirk was able to update everyone with what the other boy was doing. Even though they had their problems, they clearly were worried about each other, and it eased John's mind to know that they were checking in on each other often. Ally and Dirk, through their new friendship born of the same aspect, helped each other a lot as well, and it was a relief when they both began to relax around other people and return to somewhat normal states of mind.

Vriska and Terezi claimed they were unaffected by what happened, but everyone could see through it. Still, with their new moirallegiance, they were clearly working through their problems on their own time. Gamzee was fine, back to normal with Ally's help, and Alec, Fran and Ivan had all dealt with their problems within the first few years of being here in the new universe.

Luke followed around with Ally after the construction was done, looking somewhat like a lost puppy--or like a guy who had some problems and refused to talk about them. Fortunately for him, John was a great listener, and with Roxy's help, they got him to be less extra-moody and more normal-moody, and he was now a well-adjusted god of destruction. 

Dave took the longest to come around. Often times, John would wake up to find Dave's legs smothering his stomach or to his face smashed against his chest. Being gods, none of them really needed to sleep anymore, but it's a hard habit to break. And even though they could choose to sleep/live wherever they wanted, nearly all of them ended up in the same house together in the same room. You could go to sleep peaceful with only one or two friends slouched on the bed with you and wake up with anywhere from eight to ten people pressed against your sides. (But John didn't mind, not at all. It helped a lot to be able to do a headcount when you wake up from nightmares with their friend's screams still ringing in his ears.)

On Karkat's first meeting of the gods, 50 years after the door opened, he gathered as many of them as possible on his favorite planet to establish some rules. Somehow, he had reasserted himself as the friendleader, but everyone was too distracted to really try and argue otherwise. Then, after the meeting was done, everyone followed John back to New Earth, as they were calling it, to watch as the last building was finished being constructed.

 _They were going to be okay,_ John thought, looking around at everyone here. Sure, it took a long time for everyone to readjust after living in constant fear of The End, but they had made it. Yeah, Dave still gets weird around really loud noises, and Ally still wakes up from nightmares about her friends dying, and Jake still has a near panic-attack when locked in a room, but they were going to be okay. They had gotten this far, right?

A hundred years had gone by, and the planets were growing like crazy. There were millions upon millions of different life forms, all of them spectacular and unique, and with the hundreds of planets to check out, there was hardly a dull moment. John often tagged along behind Ally or Jade, since they went to the same planets the most often, and easily got the hang of helping the creatures along. He followed after Jake every so often, exploring the planets most of them had yet to reach, helping him catalog everything for Alec. When he followed after Dave and Karkat, he learned the "correct way to establish sensible governments and order" from Karkat, and the "easiest ways to make Karkat go off" from Dave. Deitus was the first planet to build a temple to any god, and Karkat never let anyone forget it.

A hundred and fifty years since the door opened, and the third council meeting was in full swing when Alec suggested that maybe meddling so much with the planets' differing evolutions and creatures wasn't such a good idea. His suggestion was met with annoyed shrieks from both Vriska and Terezi, and it was ultimately decided that everyone should probably limit how much they meddled.

At the 200 year meeting, it was added to the laws that you weren't allowed to meddle unless it was a FFI (Federal Fucking Issue, thanks Dave), to be determined by at least three other gods (Terezi was not allowed to be a consultant to Vriska's appeals, and vice versa).

The meeting 250 years after the door opened was probably one of the most exciting. John bounced into his seat, mostly hovering over the stone bench while Roxy chattered away beside him, apparently not caring if he listened or not. One by one, and sometimes in small groups of two or three, the gods trickled in, and with wide eyes, John realized that every single god was here. _All of them._ People really never sat in the same groups as they did at the beginning, but he counted off in his head three times just to be sure. They were all here!

Rose and Kanaya sat next to Alec and Jake, all four of them commenting on the notes in Jake's journals and slowly transferring them in Rose's neat handwriting into Alec's official tomes to be kept in his library. Although by now they were all over 250 years old, Kanaya was still radiant, even more so as she looked on fondly at Rose. Alec's glasses were weathered, the edges worn down where he constantly nudged them, and Jake was somehow still tanning as he explored the new planets.

Fran and Jade were next to Roxy, eagerly listening to her telling of a new planet while Ivan watched carefully. They had all stopped aging somewhere in their mid-twenties (Rose told him humans were at their peak at age 25, so naturally, that's where they would stop), and Ivan's horns were as large and intimidating as ever. He nodded slowly to Terezi, who was now taking her seat next to Vriska a few rows away, both of them muttering as they looked out at the gathering crowd.

Ally was walking into the room with her arm around Gamzee's waist and a bitter looking Luke in tow, and John raised his arm in an eager greeting. It'd been a while since they talked! Ally waved back just as quickly, a wide grin splitting her face.

 _Hey John!!_ A rush of excitement and happiness brushed across his mind, settling his jittering nerves. He giggled, waving one more time to show he had gotten her message, and stuck out his tongue when Luke rolled his eyes.

Dave, as usual, was seated in the middle of the semi-circle next to Karkat, both of them mumbling not that quietly to each other. Jane and Dirk were next to them, probably offering helpful and not so helpful comments, respectively, to what they were arguing about. Everyone, while some making faces that stated the otherwise, seemed happy, and the Breeze sighed with relief from above John. He settled into his chair, grinning back at Roxy when she nudged him with her elbow, and turned his attention forward as Karkat stood up.

"Well, looks like everyone's here, which is a miracle within itself." He started, red eyes narrowing out at the crowd. Probably the most interesting thing about everyone aging to 25 was when the trolls' eyes all filled in with their blood color. Some, like Vriska and Gamzee, had filled in rather quickly, but Karkat's eyes came in slowly. At first, it was just specks of red and bright as Dave's, then it was a full on scarlet that you were sure sometimes glowed a little too brightly to be normal.

The meeting went on as normal (with hundreds of interruptions and arguments), and at the end of it, it almost seemed like everyone was reluctant to leave. They all hung around, chatting in groups, and sending others sly smiles when they thought no one else was looking. John could totally get why. 

It felt good to have everyone around again. Even with everything that had happened, even with all they had been through, they had each other. And no matter what the future held or where they'd end up in the universe, that fact was a constant reminder to him: They always had each other.

And they always would.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm a sucker for post-game fics and sappiness. sue me.
> 
> ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯


	11. But the truth is I can't open up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **Dirk: Be a sad DJ == >**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i debated for like eighty years on whether or not to post this but fuck it right
> 
> for the full effect, listen to new york city by the chainsmokers

The bass was pounding through the very foundation of the building, thumping in time to a beat that Dirk had synced through his laptop into the sound system of the club. It was just a couple songs mixed together with a few sample beats thrown behind them. Simple stuff to mix, really, but therapeutic, and he was always more than willing to ad lib as the night went on. 

Dirk nodded his head to the beat, only listening to what was echoing through the slightly soundproofed walls rather than to what was coming through his headphones. He had premixed this playlist for tonight, knowing his mind was way too occupied to even think about making one on the spot. Sure, he technically had all of eternity on his hands, but the club owner had hired him as the DJ for the night, and Striders don't break promises.

"Sounds great."

Dirk spun around quickly, eyes widening a bit behind his shades. Ally was standing in the open doorway from the stairs that led back out to the dance floor, smirking at him in the dim lighting. She was wearing a tight maroon dress, not unlike the ones the humans were wearing out there dancing, and her now red-violet hair made her eyes look that much lighter.

"Sorry, didn't hear you flash in." Dirk responded, pulling off his headphones and setting them aside. Ally shrugged, closing the door behind her and stepping further into the room. Over the past 20 years that Dirk had been dabbling in DJing, Ally tagged along quite a few times, and she had quickly learned the basics. Dirk hated to admit it, but being a god got boring sometimes when the mortals didn't need them, and DJing at various clubs on the human planets was a good way to pass the time. 

"Didn't flash." She smirked, looking over the playlist with a casual glance.

Dirk quirked an eyebrow. "You came to dance?"

She hummed in response, shrugging again before moving around him to the other side of the booth. It was only a space about ten feet long, just enough for a couple tables and some extra counter space, but it didn't feel crowded with her in there. Things had always been casually easy between them, able to move and act around each other as if they were just two extensions of the same being. Dirk had always just kind of figured it was because they shared an aspect back when they played Sburb, and that the similarities between players of a certain aspect were bound to be great. He knew Ally took a less logical look at it, that she thought they were just two really similar people despite the class assignment, but he usually just smiled and nodded along to what she said. They ebbed and flowed around each other, always knowing when to speak and what the other was thinking without so much as a glance in either direction. He knew some other people were freaked out by their telepathy thing, but honestly, sending thoughts via emotions was kind of cool. Technically, it was mostly Ally that could do it, but he had gotten a lot of practice over the years. She had taught him a lot about being a heart player.

Ally settled for leaning against the side counter, cocking her head at him. The gesture was as familiar to him as his own sunglasses, having seen it for hundreds of years now. They really had spent a good portion of that time together, now that he thought about it. Beings the gods of the same things meant a lot of shared responsibilities, and sometimes, out on those planets where they needed to get things moving…

Best not to think about things like that anymore.

Pushing down the heat in his cheeks and keeping his face neutral, Dirk watched Ally right back. It was the hardest to hide emotions from her, especially when it seemed like she couldn't even control if she was reading people or not, but again, he's had a lot of practice. That made him feel terrible, especially since it seemed like Ally never held anything back from him. Speaking of which.

He took a closer look at Ally's face in the dim lighting of the room, barely lit up from the lights of the club flashing through the tinted windows. There wasn't much to see by, but he didn't need to see the details to be able to figure out what that expression was.

"Seems like a lot of sad songs tonight." Ally commented, keeping her voice careful, and that stung more than anything. Dirk swallowed, feeling guilty. She never held back, ever. So now that she was, now that she was trying to keep the tone of her voice careful, that meant something was up. And he had a solid feeling that he knew what this was about.

"What do you mean?" He asked, keeping one hand in his pocket. The skinny jeans were a soft black material, probably not even denim, and he had definitely paid a lot more than they were probably worth. But he had been in Italy, the new one on this planet, and feeling reckless, so he did it. Ally had been with him, had laughed and made fun of him but bought a matching pair. It was so great, having someone who understood the splinters and the split feelings and the mood swings depending on what the populace was feeling. The festivals were a blast, and come spring time--

Ally snorts, pulling on the cord to the headphones, and a beat matching the one playing in the club spills out through the small speakers. Dirk sets his jaw, watching as Ally smiles bitterly and sings the lyrics along with the song.

_"Do you know what it's like to love somebody the way I love you?"_

The song was recently released, and Dirk had only been paying half attention to the songs he was putting on this playlist. That doesn't make it hurt any less.

_"To know how it feels to kill yourself with bad habits? To know what you want, and that you'll never truly have it?"_

Now that he thought about it, the songs did all have a certain theme to them. Figures that Ally would pick up on it before he did. She was the smarter one of the two of them, he was sure of it. And as she smiled sadly at him, his heart twisted that much further.

_"New York City, please go easy on me tonight. New York City, please go easy on this heart of mine."_

Dirk took a couple hesitant steps forward as she continued to sing tunelessly to the song echoing around the room they were in. She reached up for his shades, pulling them slowly away from his face. She was one of the only people he ever let do that. It always felt too intimate, too close and unguarded to have his shades off in front of other people. But with her, it felt okay. Her green eyes searched his, and he swallowed as he spotted the tears in her eyes now that he was only a couple feet from her.

_"Because I'm losing my lover to the arms of another."_

Dirk's eyebrows betrayed him, pinching together in remorse. "Ally--"

 _"New York City, please go easy on me tonight."_ She broke off in a barely repressed sob, and he closed the distance between them, hands going to grab either side of her face and tilt it upwards so that he could catch her lips with his.

It felt just as soft as every other kiss between them. God, with one kiss, he shot back to that first time they had kissed, hesitant and unsure but needing it. Emotions were always hard to control, especially during the mating seasons of the different planets. But each species needed them to regulate and control it, keep it in check so that nothing was over or under populated. 

Dirk puts his hands under her, lifts her onto his counter as the beat echoes through his chest, carrying him closer to her, pressing ever closer against the thin fabric of her chest.

It was the third time they were making their rounds around the planets. Through some unspoken agreement, they had avoided each other those first two years, and Dirk always told himself it was because he was still hurting from ending his relationship with Jake, and he didn't want to confuse his feelings with the pheromones flying through the air. But he had accidentally stumbled upon her hiding spot, found her in the middle of a surge of instinct, and when their gazes connected, it took only seconds for him to reach her. It was like an explosion, like a forest fire, like two stars colliding after years of circling each other. It was purely physical, and they both knew it, both acknowledged it as such after the fact. But gods, if it didn't keep happening, every planet, every cycle, every time, and _gods_ if he didn't love it.

 _"When I went away, saw your face in my rear view."_ Ally sings against his lips, and he can feel the wetness on her cheeks rubbing against his. Dirk kept his eyes closed, unable to bring himself to look at her. _"I knew that look on your face, that I had lost you."_

He caught her in another kiss, this one more desperate, more apologetic. 

_New York City, please go easy on me tonight. New York City, please go easy on this heart of mine…_ continued to echo in the now silent space between them, and he knows he's the worst person on this planet, maybe in the universe. She kisses him harder like she knows what he's thinking, and he knows that she does.

It took him so long to admit it to himself, and even longer for Ally to realize what was happening, but they had fallen for each other. In the beginning, they told each other it was just instinct, and that's why it went against both of their personal orientations at the time. But it happened, again and again, and each time, they fought it less and less. Soon, they began seeking each other out, then just staying with each other, traveling from planet to planet in weeks-long throes. Species were flourishing, and Jane and Jade were marveling in just how well life was doing on each planet. He never meant to treat it like a secret, but for some reason, when Jane asked "just what on earth were you two feeding them?", he just smiled and shrugged. Ally gave him a look, but he just said, "They barely needed a push. Everything's going great without us doing much." And from then on, neither of them told a soul.

Festivals on primitive planets were huge parties now, and the other gods attended in ignorance, unknowing of what went on in the darkest corners of the planets they were on. But still, he just told himself _instinct, all it is is instinct._

She pulled him still closer, pressing against him in the way she knew he liked, and her breath was shaky in her throat as he tilted her head to deepen the kiss.

_'Cause I'm losing my lover to the arms of another. New York City, please go easy on me tonight._

468 years after the door had opened, Jake was finally calming down with his rampage to explore the universe, and he began to come around more. The two of them were beginning to be friends again, growing closer, and spending more time together. Dirk wasn't surprised in the least when old feelings resurfaced not for the first time, but a year into the two of them talking again, he was shocked at how guilty he felt when he and Ally went to make their rounds.

Ally sensed it immediately, asked what was wrong, asked what had happened to the easy flow between the two of them? It had barely been a hiccup on Dirk's part, but she knew from the moment they met up that something was wrong. Dirk tried and tried to convince both himself and her that it was nothing, but he couldn't do it.

Either he was cheating on Ally, or he was going to be cheating on Jake, and he couldn't do it anymore.

"We never said that word." He whispered against her cheek urgently, pressing kisses along her jaw and to the side of her neck, slotting himself against her as she sighed. He was almost amazed that he was still trying to convince himself that this was nothing. "You never used that word."

Ally's nails dug into his back as he pressed against her again, causing her skirt to ride even further up her legs where they were wrapped around Dirk's waist. "We both know actions speak louder than words, especially for us."

Dirk kisses her again, pouring his heart into the kiss. What little he has, anyways. It shouldn't mean shit, because he wasn't shit. He was terrible, and destructive, and he should never have let this go as far as it did, for as long as it did. But he had, because he wanted it. And now that some old flame had reappeared, he was cutting off over 400 years of--of whatever this was.

_You promised, I promised…_

_"I never knew I could be this selfish."_ He whispers to her chest as he moves her dress to above her waist, and her hands bury themselves in his hair. Each movement was the echo of one done a thousand times before, but he still got the same chill as if it were the first time. _"Nights downtown, it's a new town…"_

She's pressing kisses along his face as he presses into her, tearing out another sigh with a twist of his hips. Old habits die hard, especially ones you don't want to quit.

_But I keep thinking I see your face in the crowd…_

_"But you're not here,"_ She grabs his face, and he opens his eyes in surprise. She hasn't been that rough with him in months. Probably because they haven't spoken, if he's honest. He hated it, he knows he's clingy, but he hated her ignoring him. But he can't blame her, he can't blame her at all, he deserves every ounce of anger she sends his way.

 _"And you won't be,"_ She continues. Dirk digs his fingers into her waist, keeping time with the beat now, and the tears in her eyes shine up at him as she whispers, _"'Cause you love me enough to let go of me."_

It feels like waves of fire crash down around him, and he presses a rough kiss against her lips as she whines. 

_New York City, please go easy on me tonight. New York City, please go easy on this heart of mine…_

Hot breath washes over his face, and he kisses down her neck, tears of his own pricking at the corners of his eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry--"

_'Cause I'm losing my lover to the arms of another…_

Ally just cries and holds onto him, and he holds her back as tightly as he dares. He doesn't deserve her, doesn't deserve either of them.

"Don't think that." She murmurs into his hair, and he shoves his face into her neck. "Don't think about yourself like that, please."

_New York City, please go easy on me tonight._

"I'm sorry." He whispers again as the song begins to fade into another one, another familiar sad song that's just upbeat enough to keep people dancing. Jesus, she wasn't kidding when she said he had a theme for tonight. She was always able to pick things out, point out things about himself that he hadn't noticed before. Heart players, man. Whatever Ally said, he knew that was why, and he also knew that was why it had felt so intense. With his strength and her amplifying effect, everything was magnified beyond what it should have been. And even as he thinks that, he knows he's wrong, knows he's still trying to convince himself into something logical that will make it easier on him, make him feel less guilty.

They sit like that for another few minutes, and then Dirk finally pulls away to look down at her. He feels so exposed without his shades on, and his fingers itch to grab them from where they sit just a couple feet away on his table. He's never felt the urge to have them on in front of her, not since the beginning. _Guilty guilty guilty guilty._ Ally just looks back up to him, that same sad smile on her face, and he thinks again that he doesn't deserve her, hasn't deserved how good she was for all those years.

"It was great while it lasted, right?" Ally's green eyes bore into his, with an intensity that he was never able to replicate on any level. She always felt things deeper, could express more than he could. Always straight to the heart of the issue, seemingly just stumbling upon the most emotionally powerful words. She smiles ruefully, tears beginning to dry. "Just instinct, right?"

Dirk's heart shatters at the word, thinking back to how many goddamn times he must have told her that in order to reassure himself that it meant nothing. But the more he had denied it, the more it had meant to him, and now look where that got him.

"I'm sorry."

She watches him for another second, face going scarily blank. He may have learned a few things from her over these long years about how to open up and how to forgive, but he realized now as she stared at him with a void expression just how much she must have learned from him as well.

"No hard feelings. We never said that word, anyways."

_You don't wanna step off that roller coaster and be all alone._

And then she's gone in a flash of pink, leaving Dirk alone with his pants down in a dark room. The beat of the latest song continues to thump around him, and he knows the people in the club must be going crazy now because of his and Ally's latest deed, but he feels hollow. There was no rush of knowing that their passion had fueled another generation of beings into existence, no surge of excitement for what else they could do for the future. No, he just felt tired and hurt and so, so alone.

_You don't wanna be stuck up on that stage singing, stuck up on that stage singing…_

With empty movements, he zips himself back up, puts on his shades, and turns to finish the set. He had made his choice, and now he had to deal with the repercussions of it.

_All I know are sad songs, sad songs._


	12. like one stupid star

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> absolutely and entirely inspired by that incredibly amazing fic Like One Sundered Star. if you haven't read it, go read it, because it might possibly be better than homestuck itself.
> 
> this is basically how my characters would fit in LOSS instead of in scratchbent and i'm not ashamed at all

DIGRESSION: SIDE B ==>

The sky always seemed too dull in the cities, but it wasn't like she could go anywhere else. There was a job to be done, and by jove, she'd do it!

Below her on the old stone streets, a group of men with guns surrounded two without, and she could tell the situation was getting hostile. No doubt it'd be easy for her to stop the escalating tension! She had only been ten when she figured out what all she could do, and it was a year later before she had it all mastered. It had only grown stronger since then, but it was a pinch to adjust!

"Surprise!" She shouted, jumping off the roof, and in the next instant, she was on the ground in the middle of the group, beaming at the criminals who hadn't even had the chance to adjust to her first loud noise.

"I'll take those, thanks!" She snapped her fingers, stealing the guns straight from their hands and whisking them away to where they could be safely stored in her space pocket. She was sure there was a better name for the place where things went when she made them disappear, but she hadn't found it yet!

The men looked down at their hands, and a couple threw their arms up in surrender immediately. The rest squared up to fight, even in broad daylight! The nerve!

"Let's go, then!" She egged them, settling into a more proper fighting stance herself, but they were interrupted by two red smoke bombs going off on either side of them. Instinctively, she backed up, grabbing the people behind her and directing them out of the way of the smoke. The criminals were coughing, and through the haze, she saw a large figure darting about.

By the time the smoke cleared, all of the men lay on the ground, dazed or handcuffed, and a troll stood above them, his suit in shades of grey giving him away.

"Those were mine!" She shouted jokingly, watching as the troll leaned down and began zip-tying the rest of them. He didn't acknowledge her, and she put her hands on her hips. "Hell _oooo?_ Hunter! I'm talking to you!"

The troll finished and stood, turning around like he was looking for any he missed, and as his eyes landed on her, he startled, taking half a step back.

"What, forgot you interrupted my crime scene?" She asked, hands out wide. "I totally had them, by the way!"

The troll was frozen, still staring at her like he had seen a ghost. After another second of awkwardness, he took a few steps forward, and she realized just how much bigger he was than her. He stood at least six foot six, probably taller, and looked like he could dismantle a car with a single punch. She wasn't stupid, she had read all about her fellow crime fighter in these parts, and knew that many people speculated The Hunter was a coolblood, just by looks alone. The seadweller part was debated on, but most could agree he was at least blue, probably purple. However, Hunter wore grey contacts, and no one had ever gotten close enough to make him bleed.

"Can I help you?" She asked nervously, bringing her fists closer to her chest. Internally, she began charging up her blasts, just as a back up. Hunter was one of the more docile vigilantes, but one could never be too careful around a coolblood. 

"Fran?" He croaked out, voice sounding twisted and warped, like it hadn't been used in ages. It wasn't the grating tone or the sharp teeth that set her on edge, although it should have been. But no, how did he know _her name?_

She spun around quickly, seeing the only conscious people were the two she had saved. "Hal hasalt ealaa hadha?" She asked, trying to remember what city she was in, then repeated it in Swahili just to be certain. "Je, unayo hili?"

The people nodded, and she grabbed the troll in front of her roughly, pulling him down so his face was inches from hers. His eyes widened, like he was afraid of her. Funny.

"Look, I don't know how you know my name, or what language you speak, but you need to follow me right now because I have a few questions you need to answer." She paused, then frowned deeper. The mask covered nearly all his facial features, this really wasn't helping. "And look, until we reach the safehouse, I'm Hoodwink, okay?"

He nodded slowly, and she turned and took off, scrambling her way up the fire escapes and across the roofs. He kept up with her easily, covering the distance to her hidden apartment. The money from her few patents allowed her to keep her several apartments as she globe trotted, and she loved this one in Morocco especially. It was in a richer neighborhood, so already the security was used to the anonymity and 'no questions asked', and besides: it had a better view of the stars at night.

She swung down from the roof and dropped easily onto her balcony, and she felt the troll slam down a second later. She gestured for him to go inside, then closed and locked the door, and pulled the curtains shut for good measure. She watched him for a second, debating on whether it'd be necessary to retrieve any of the weapons she had under her bed. Naturally, it was hard for a 13 year old smaller-than-average girl not to feel threatened by a huge troll, but Hoodwink was not your average hero.

She finally settled for standing across the room from him, arms crossed in front of her chest. She gave him a second to keep looking around, then cleared her throat. When he still didn't look over at her, she waved her hands, and his gaze finally snapped to her.

"So! Care to tell me how you know my real name?" She asked, deciding to get right to the point.

The troll paused, hands twitching in front of him. Then, with that same weird, warped voice, he said, "Can't hear. Deaf. Sorry."

"Oh." Oh. "Oh my God, I'm so sorry, I didn't know--" Fran cut herself off, biting her lip. Oh boy, this was awkward. She could speak nine different languages and none of them were any form of Sign Language. He seemed to be able to understand her, though, so that worked. "Um. How about--"

He cut her off by lifting his hands, giving her a gesture for 'one second'. Well, she understood that easily enough. With a shy smile, the troll reached up and removed prosthetic caps from the ends of his horns, revealing that instead of blunt tips, they were long and curvy, the ends a lot sharper than she expected. After that, he unsnapped the mask and removed it, and when he looked back up to her, her blood ran as cold as his.

Instantly, the feeling of missing something, of every time she had felt alone, of every single night spent staring at the stars and wondering _What am I missing?_ left. Pieces fell into place like the puzzles she loved, like solving a long equation. It all made sense, because she had found him.

Him, who had haunted her dreams ever since she could remember, who had been the face she had always been searching for in every crowd. It was why she traveled so often, why she kept inventing, just hoping that he'd notice and remember like she remembered him.

In her defense, she wasn't wearing colored contacts to hide her fuschia eyes. 

She swallowed the lump in her throat, but she couldn't stop the tears of happiness from spilling over. She finally had him back: her other half, her rock, her favorite troll in the entire universe.

"Ivan?"

-

\--analyzingRicochet [ AR ] began pestering finiteJacker [ FJ ] at 14:32 PM UTC--  
AR: Hey Hoodwink!  
AR: I know you still won't really message me back yet, and that's okay! It's all a little weird and definitely takes some time to get used to.  
AR: But I heard from some people that you ran into the Hunter finally? How'd it go? Is everything okay?  
AR: I know language barriers can be tough, but if anyone can overcome it, it'd be you two!  
AR: If you ever need help with anything, don't hesitate to ask!  
AR: Sincerely, Mage.  
\--analyzingRicochet [ AR ] ceased pestering finiteJacker [ FJ ] at 14:56 PM UTC--  


-

"Can you believe this Mage guy?" 

Emma sighed, rolling her eyes before taking another bite from the sandwich in her hands. Ally could drone on and on and on about the other heroes, it was best to just tune her out.

"Like, how does he know all this! Listen." Ally cleared her throat, angling herself so it'd be harder for Emma to ignore her up on the rooftop. "'Artemis and Apollo have been stepping up their game lately over in the United States, and this poster gets a feeling that they'll be upgrading their weapons sometime soon!' Like, for real? How could he possibly know?" Ally gestures angrily at the sword she made only hours ago. "He posted that four days ago! _I_ didn't even know I was going to make a better sword four days ago!" 

"I'm sure it's just a coincidence." Emma waved a hand, reaching for a napkin. "Or maybe he's one of those clairvoyants. Whatever he is, I'm sure he's nothing for us to worry about."

"Are you sure?" Ally pouted, and Emma looked away as she continued. "I mean, I don't really care about my identity, but I'm sure if he figured out yours and unmasked you, that wouldn't be good!"

Emma kept her eyes trained on the skyline and steadily ignored the brunette next to her. When they were younger, it had been easy for her to watch everything Ally did, easy for her to get swept up in the magic and mystery that surrounds Ally Richards, but things were different now. She had things to do, agendas to accomplish, and she couldn't possibly keep leading on a hopeless 14 year old. Nobody had the time for that.

"Trust me, he's of no concern." Emma wiped the crumbs off her costume quickly and efficiently, then stood, watching as Ally clambered up next to her. Across town, an alarm went off, and Emma pointed as she pulled on her mask. "There."

Ally grimaced. "Yeesh, that's kind of far, Ems." Emma bit her tongue at the nickname. "I just finally got a handle on this, I'm not sure I can jump that far."

"Of course you can." Emma readjusted her quiver on her back, then held out her hand unceremoniously. "Let's go."

Ally hesitated, but reached forward and took it gently in hers. The materials of their gloves rubbed against each other, and Emma hoped it was enough layers between them that she could prevent the feelings from leaking into her--but it was no use. As soon as she felt the warmth of Ally's palm slip into hers, her chest tightened, mirroring Ally's emotions. _Anxiety, love, hope, anticipation, nervous energy,_ and a pure excitement coursed through her and quickly made her head spin. How could one person _feel_ so much?

"Okay, hold on," Ally told her uselessly, and grabbed Emma's hand tighter before placing her other one on her chest. With a deep breath, Emma felt the familiar tingle, and then they were gone.

Ally's teleporting wasn't like what Emma had thought it would be when her friend first described it to her. There was a constant tingling sensation, a persistent beat in her ears, and on top of it all, there was the rush of emotion from the surrounding city that sent her mind into a tailspin. The sheer amount of the force of emotion from other people always scared her, but it was Ally's emotions that scared her the most.

There were the ones she recognized from before, of course, there were always the surface emotions. But below that, below everything, there was a gaping emptiness. It felt huge, insurmountable, and if Emma thought about it for too long, she felt irreparably lonely, and it made her stomach ache for a home she had never seen.

They landed on the rooftop Emma had pointed to before, and immediately, Ally fell to one knee, clutching her chest and gasping for breath.

Oh, yes, there was that as well.

After a couple moments, Ally stood, although she was still shaking. "Little better than last time, yeah?"

Emma rolled her eyes and looked away, drawing an arrow. "We're late."

Ally sighed behind her, and internally, Emma kicked herself. She needed to be distant, not cold.

_Any distance is a cold distance from Ally,_ the voice in her head replied, and Emma could only agree.

The world would indeed be a cold place once the fire that is Ally is extinguished. Thankfully, she probably wouldn't be around for the end.

-

\--analyzingRicochet [ AR ] began pestering enforcedSecurity [ ES ] at 10:06 PM EST--  
AR: Hello Artemis!  
AR: Not replying still, I see.  
AR: You haven't blocked me yet, so that's always good news!  
AR: Anyways, I was just checking in on you, as usual. It's been a while since I've really heard anything about you guys, but that tends to be good news when it comes to superheroes like we all are!  
AR: Anyways, Ally  
AR: er, Apollo  
AR: Apollo says your powers are getting stronger, so congrats! That means you'll probably start remembering more soon! And once you do, we can find all the others and get everyone together the way we tried to get it to be before everything went to pieces!  
AR: I really miss you guys. A lot.  
AR: Anyways, I'm sensing some bad stuff coming up for you guys soon, although I can't tell why just yet. Just keep an eye on each other and I know you'll be fine!  
AR: Talk to you soon hopefully!  
\--analyzingRicochet [ AR ] ceased pestering enforcedSecurity [ ES ] at 10:22 PM EST--

\---

Karkat's running, but he can't run fast enough. Laser blasts are raining down all around him like hellfire, and it honestly seems like the world is splitting in two.

"Karkat!" Someone shouts, and then he's knocked off to the side by said person tackling him. He looks back in time to see a massive robot hit the ground where he was only seconds ago, creating a crater that would have turned him into a pancake.

"Look over your shoulder every once in a while, will ya?" A young man says gruffly, pushing off the ground without so much as offering a hand to help Karkat up. He's tall, taller than Kanaya but shorter than Gamzee, built like a tank and with skin darker than the Jade human's. The guy-- _Luke,_ his brain supplies--turns back to the field, pulling his stupid anime sword back out of his sylladex.

"Can you get ahold of Ally? She's not answering pesterchum again and I just know she's up to her neck in her fucking splinters trying to help Aradia and Alec's stupid plan." He looks around, brow furrowed. "Have you seen Alec?"

Karkat has no idea who this kid thinks he is, and he has no idea why he feels like he trusts them. It's not the same feeling that he gets when he dreams about memories of Sollux or Kanaya, nor is it the same kind of feeling when he dreams about John in his session. But regardless, it's a trust, almost a mutual respect that the boy in front of him will fight to defend Karkat and his friends no matter what.

"I haven't seen Alec since he and Aradia came _up_ with this half-cooked plan and he ran off with Gamzee," Karkat feels himself say, brushing soot off his shoulder as he stands. "Fucking light players. Those two would have been the last two I would have paired together for something like this. Shit, I even would have put Gamzee and Ally together before--" Karkat cuts himself off, a low sort of swooping in his stomach that hurts.

Luke spares a glance at him, then grimaces. "Dude, you told her you were chill with it."

Karkat has no idea what this dude in his dream is referring to, but he feels himself scowling. "I am fine with it! It's just fucking awkward. Humans and trolls should never be interacting that way, it's awkward. Besides, they literally _just met,_ right? Even if apparently he was in your session for a while. So awkward. They're awkward."

"Say awkward one more time," Luke replies, deadpan. "Please give me a reason to stab you."

Karkat rolls his eyes. "Go fucking find your nerd boy then. I'll work on Ally." 

Without a word, Luke kicks on his jetpack and flies off, slashing at the robots as he goes. Karkat watches him for a moment, then pulls out his phone to where he has a series of last messages from Ally.

_Who the hell is Ally?_ Doesn't matter, apparently, because this Karkat certainly knows her.

AD: alrighty off to see my denizen! aradia says alke's pretty chill but no one else has ever had her so this'll be interesting  
AD: hope the fight's going good for you guys! keep me updated  
\-- AD is an idle chum!--  
\-- AD is no longer idle!--  
AD: done with the denizen! she actually was super nice  
AD: oh shit  
AD: fuck fuck fuck  
AD: oh god i hope god tier means you can't be smashed to death  
\--ardorDeviant [ AD ] ceased being pestered by carcinoGeneticist [ CG \--ardorDeviant [ AD ] began pestering carcinoGeneticist [ CG ]--  
AD: hahaha fuck dave and aradia were right this is so shitty  
CG: ALLY WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT  
AD: oh shit there you are!  
AD: ummmm nothing  
CG: DON'T LIE TO ME YOU PIECE OF SHIT AlEC AND ARADIA RAN OFF HALF COCKED AND YOU HAD TO GET ALL YOUR CLONES INVOLVED AND NOW WE'RE ALL HERE DEALING WITH YOUR FUCKING REPERCUSSIONS  
AD: i have to scratch my session!  
AD: dave's doing theirs and aradia's doing yours and seeing as my time and space players are currently ocupado i gotta do mine  
AD: and because of the stupid TARDIS shit i have like double the work  
AD: anyways  
AD: the clones were totally necessary considering i'm being attacked by literally every minion from ivan's planet  
CG: FUCK  
CG: WE'RE REALLY DOING THIS AREN'T WE  
AD: don't really have any other choice, you know?  
AD: i just wish  
AD: nah nevermind  
CG: WHAT  
AD: i dunno  
CG: DON'T i dunno ME.  
CG: WE'RE LITERALLY BRINGING IN THE END OF LIKE THREE DIFFERENT WORLDS NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO HOLD BACK.  
CG: SPILL IT, ALLY.  
AD: JESUS fine!  
AD: what if it doesn't work? and we never see anyone else ever again?  
AD: i don't want to forget you guys!!  
AD: this is the first time in my life i've ever had any friends  
AD: like real and good friends  
AD: well him  
AD: and then we got pulled through some weird time bullshit and met all you guys and then right as we started to get to know each other, shit hit the fan and we all split up and  
AD: i don't want to leave you guys.  
CG: ALLY  
CG: SHIT  
CG: YOU'RE NOT ACTUALLY LEAVING US  
CG: YOU HEARD ARADIA, WE'RE JUST RESETTING EVERYTHING SO WE GET A BETTER SHOT AT THIS SHITBLASTED GAME NEXT TIME.  
CG: NO MATTER WHAT, I'M NOT GOING TO FORGET YOU. EVEN IF WE GET ALL TURNED AROUND AND SHOT ACROSS THE REST OF THE FUCKING MEDIUM YOU KNOW WE'LL ALWAYS FIND OUR WAY BACK TO EACH OTHER BECAUSE WE'RE ALL HYPER DEPENDENT IDIOTS WHO CAN'T GO SIX SECONDS WITHOUT TALKING TO EACH OTHER.  
CG: EVEN JOHN AND ALL THEM, WE'LL ALL BE OKAY.  
AD: thanks karkat (:  
AD: alrighty, i'm scratching now.  
AD: call you on the other side!  
CG: NOT IF I CALL YOUR SORRY ASS FIRST.  
AD: haha love you kk

A giant crack ripped through the sky, the deafening sound of shattering glass surrounding him a second later. Karkat fell to one knee for stability, clutching his phone with Ally's number displayed on the screen. He hit the call button and held it up to his ear, watching with terrified eyes as the sky cracked more and more.

_"Karkat? Why are you calling? Is something wrong?"_

He feels like an idiot as he says this, the secondhand embarrassment ringing out strong through the dreamscape. "Have you seen that stupid human movie called Finding a Friend For The End of the World? John sent me a link to it one time and it's terrible."

What the shit? God, this was one of the weirdest dreams Karkat has had.

Ally's voice crackles back over the speaker, laughing loudly while someone asks in the background, _"Is that fucking Karkat? Why is he asking you about shitty Steve Carell movies when the sky is ripping itself apart?"_

"Dave?" Karkat grumbles, putting them on speaker as well so he can grab his sickles. "Why the shit is Dave there? I thought for the plan to work, he had to scratch his fucking session?"

_"I did, fuckface."_ Rings through at the same time as Ally says, _"He did! And it shot him over here. So now I have a buddy while I wreck shit."_

"Karkat!"

This voice is coming from the sky above him to where a certain blue kid is zooming through the sky at probably a hundred miles an hour and way too quickly to be safe--but he pulls up at the last second, grinning down at Karkat.

"Need a lift?"

_"John?"_

_"Hey John! Wish you were here!"_

_"Jegus Ally, we've got enough bozos here as it is."_

"You two are so stupid," Karkat grumbles, saying it along with his dreamself and meaning it with every fiber of his being. John makes a face at the phone, but then another large crack is ripping through the sky, and he can hear as Ally's phone clatters to the ground.

"Ally? You there?"

No response. The cracks grow brighter, and Karkat thinks he can see someone descending in the distance, vaguely sarcophagus shaped. 

"Dave? Ally? Anybody?" John shouts, looking down at Karkat's phone with wide eyes. Only static is the response, and the last thing Karkat remembers is John grabbing onto Karkat as the explosion rockets outwards.

He grips onto John for dear life, and when he wakes up, spluttering on sopor slime, there are ten numbers burning a hole into the forefront of his mind.

\---

"Wait, so if all the players kept our powers, that means all the superheroes are players, right?" John asked suddenly, sitting up as he looked over at Rose. She cocked her head, kind of understanding where he was going with this.

"Well, we'd have to erase from the list the ones that don't have any powers," Rose tells him, placing her hands on her knees, "And the ones whose powers probably aren't actual powers. But as far as we're aware, we're the 16 players. There aren't any more mentioned in any of the data we've gotten from the Queen's Hub."

"That's not totally true!" Jade interrupts, halfway glancing at Sollux before continuing. "There was still loads of encrypted files that we don't have the password for, and they look pretty huge, too! I'd say they were big enough to hold more game files, maybe even a whole session! Not to mention all of the static at the end of the game that doesn't let us see how it really ended."

Everyone turned to the White Queen, who looked back at them like an NPC waiting for input. Rose almost smirked. What a startlingly appropriate comparison.

"Queen, was there another session we haven't seen yet that plays into this?" Jade asks, taking one for the team. Karkat is appallingly quiet, almost glaring down at his phone like it spoke ill of John or something similar.

The Queen takes a moment before nodding, a small and almost bashful gesture, but still elegant. 

WQ: There might be, yes. But it would have been one that created the troll's session, and from what we've seen, that was a simple execution of the game. The only thing that we wouldn't have been able to pick up on-- 

She cuts off suddenly, black eyes going a bit wide in her face.

"What?" John prompts, while Feferi leans forward with interest from where she had previously not been paying attention.

The White Queen recomposes herself, looking over at the Black Queen slowly, who has started almost crackling with energy. 

WQ: Void sessions often get wiped from the hard drive of the game, per say. As they cannot bear fruit and their battlefield is nonexistent, often all data is swept away as we move on to the next session in line.

The Black Queen glares daggers at the other, and Karkat grips his phone all the more tightly. 

BQ: Are you suggesting there was a void session that we don't remember?

WQ: Seeing as how the two following sessions were clouded in so many horrorterrors, I'm not surprised. They had to be let in somehow. And if there were a void session, where one player called upon them to reset everything…

The two Queens are quiet, looking at each other, and John pipes up again.

"So you're saying there are more players out there?"

The White Queen nods. 

WQ: I have felt that there is a certain...gap in my memory, but I merely attributed it to the messiness of the past two sessions. Aside from that, when I think about it too hard, I usually get a migraine from trying to see through all the static.

The Black Queen practically growls. 

BQ: Unfortunately, I have felt this as well. If we both cannot recall it, it must have been a very dull void session indeed.

Sollux rolls his eyes. "Maketh thenthe why we got 22 copieth of the game inthead of jutht 16."

"What other heroes, John?" Kanaya speaks for the first time in the meeting. Karkat startles, nearly dropping his phone before recovering himself. Regardless, both Gamzee and John have a hand on him before they continue.

"Well, if we wipe the guys off the list that don't have powers, or ones that are super trivial, like Rose suggested," John thinks, counting on his fingers, "Then that leaves five, maybe six. Which is--"

"Which makes for a total of 22," Rose finishes, mouth parted slightly. "Who are they? When I was keeping track of them, I mainly only paid attention to the ones who seemed the most psychologically interesting, so I'm afraid I don't quite recall all of them."

"The Hunter and Hoodwink are two of the big ones." John grins, eyes lighting up marginally, talk of superheroes being enough to lift his spirits. "They're in the mediterranean right now, I think, and they usually hop around there. Hunter can predict people's moves, so he might be a mind player! And Hoodwink can do a bunch of teleporty stuff like Jade, and she can change size or something like that and do weird blasty things. They're well known over there, and they definitely have actual powers. But they're also super secretive, no one's ever had a guess about who they are."

"The only thing anybody can find out about them is that one's a purpleblood and the other's a human." Karkat fills in quietly, still staring down at his phone. Rose watches him for a moment, but then John's speaking again.

"They'd be pretty easy to track down, though. They don't exactly hide, I'm pretty sure they're in hero uniform like, 24/7." He glances at Karkat out of curiosity as well, then keeps talking, undeterred by his distractibility. "The other three are harder to keep track of. Mystic was a hero down in New Orleans who could summon weird ghosty things, but she totally disappeared about two years ago. There's been some sightings on the hero forums, but no one can prove anything."

"Why do people think she went missing?" Vriska burst out, finally unable to keep quiet. "Did she get beat and run away?"

"No, that's the crazy thing!" John was full on grinning now. "She was fighting like, eight guys at once and beat them all, but when she won, she collapsed. Suddenly, there was this huge pink light, and she _disappeared!_ A lot of people think it was Apollo who came and got her. When we were all in middle school, there were two young heroes in Atlanta who fought together and went by Apollo and Artemis. They got in some sort of argument one day and split up, and Artemis popped up in New Orleans and started going by Mystic while no one saw Apollo again."

"I remember them."

Everyone whips around, staring wide-eyed at Bro, who appeared in the doorway. 

"You do?" Dave asks, sitting forward with his brows furrowed. 

"They were on my old turf, of course I knew 'em. Lalonde did, too, I bet." He jerked his chin over to Rose's mother, who was still sitting quietly, taking everything in. "It was a while after we left, but I was keeping track of the Crew back in our old city. Those two were real young, can't believe they thought they could handle fighting." He shifted a bit, and Rose lifted an eyebrow. That small shift was enough to convey a world of emotion, especially coming from Bro. In her other sight, the brightness of his silhouette was roiling, almost like an ocean in a storm. "But they did. Hell, they were some of the best fighters I'd seen. Part of the reason why I kept up with the sword specibus. One used a bow with a hell of a lot of different kinds of arrows and the other used some sort of homemade sword, but shit if they didn't beat everyone they came across."

"What stopped them?" Jade asked, eyes wide and totally enraptured in his story. Rose was positive she had never heard Bro say this much. Apparently, he was quite interested in these two if he went out of his way to research them.

"Dunno." A small shrug, face stoic. "Like John said, they got in an argument and disappeared. Something about the way one of them was handling the fight. Apollo teleported Artemis out of there, then came back to clean up. By that time, everyone on the news was freaking out about it, so she did it quick and got the hell out of there. Haven't seen her since. I couldn't even figure out where she went."

"So Artemis became Mewstic and went to New Orleans? And then disapurred?" Nepeta recapped, looking just as interested as Jade.

"Yeah." John shrugged. "So when Mystic disappeared in that big pink flash, people thought it was Apollo because that used to be one of their big tricks. Apollo would disappear in a flash, to throw them off, and then Artemis would knock them out."

"If we're including Mystic in our list, should we include Apollo?" Rose asked, and John shrugged.

"To me, she just seemed like a really good sword fighter, like Puppeteer." John glanced wide-eyed at Bro, then smiled sheepishly. "I mean you. She was great with a sword, but she didn't really seem to have any other powers. Even with her teleporty thing, right before she did it, she always had to grab at something on her shirt, right above her chest, so on the forums, most people thought she had gotten ahold of a teleportation device."

"Not including her, then." Sollux grumbled, leaning in his chair, and John nodded at him.

"So, two are across the fucking ocean, and ones MIA." Dave sat back again, sighing. "This is totally on par with our luck right now."

"Reaper's not too far away!" John turned to look at him, and Dave merely raised an eyebrow.

"Reaper?"

"Yeah, Reaper." John smirked. "Totally cheesy name, but it fits. He's been on the vigilante watch list the entire time he's been a hero. He was definitely on track to becoming a villain, but then his sidekick came and totally mellowed him out."

"One of the only times people have actually thought there was a human-human moirallegiance." Rose nodded, "I paid attention to that. Reaper was highly destructive, he had many casualties when he fought. He mainly went after bigger crime organizations, correct?"

"Yeah, always went after the guys with guns and mob bosses." John nodded quickly. "I wouldn't be surprised if he even tried to take on the Crew or the Felt at some point! He took down a lot of major drug rings and slave circles. But everyone on the forums always said he was super unemotional, didn't care about anything except winning. Then Mage showed up, and now he's not that bad anymore. Reaper's powers are like, explosions and corrosion and stuff."

The Black Queen snorts, looking at Sollux with unhidden disgust. 

BQ: Another doom player? Just what we need.

"What can Mage do?" Nepeta prompted, ignoring the way Equius was trying to push her back down on her chair. She was definitely reaching for her tablet, no doubt about to update her shipping chart with all of this new information.

"See, he's the one I'm not totally positive on whether he's a player." John's brow furrowed. "Mainly, he was just a really famous guy on the forums. He went by Alec the Mage in the beginning, back when he lived in Hawaii, and always had theories on heroes that turned out to be right. Every single one of them."

"I was actually worried he knew about my identity at one point." Karkat grumbles again, now positively scowling at his phone. "He got so many things right about me, and John, now that I think about it. Probably a few of you, too."

John nodded eagerly and continued, "So people started listening to him and looking for updates from him and he got really big. Then he moved to the states and began just posting as Mage instead while he travelled around. He said he was just trying to get a closer look at some of the heroes, but seeing how he moved right after Apollo and Artemis broke up, a lot of people think he went looking for Apollo. Instead, he met up with Reaper and fights with him now."

"Shitty powers, if he does have them." Karkat grumbles, now scrolling through his phone while Gamzee idly pats his back from behind. "Some people think he can do electricity, others think it's just some sparklers he carries around, and he's never said either way. His replies to people are fucking infuriating to read. He always puts smileys and never confirms anything except for his own theories and thinks everything's a game."

"The last time people think they saw Apollo was a year ago." Eridan offered, and everyone turned to look at him. When he noticed everyone staring at him, he shrunk back on himself, sneering out at everyone. "What? I read a lot!"

"Where was she?" Nepeta asked loudly, eyes wide as her pen moved across the now acquired paper.

"Nevada." Eridan still looked annoyed. "It was on the news and everythin'. Do you live under a rock?" At a glare from Feferi, he grumbled a bit, but continued, "Reaper and Mage were in the middle of taking down some prostitution circle or somethin' and they were gettin' beat real bad when some chick showed up. She had this huge ass hood on, so no one was sure, but she had the same green sword that Apollo used to and fought the same way. It was because of her they won, honestly. But as soon as it was over, she dipped out, and all the news reports said Reaper was pissed after."

"That's crazy." Terezi snorted, obviously about to go on a tirade about the law, but Jade interrupted her quickly.

"So, that's five, not including Apollo, but counting Mage." Jade counted off on her fingers, much the same way John did earlier. "Who's the sixth?"

John brightened up again, and Karkat rolled his eyes hard. "Alke! She's so cool." 

"John never used to shut up about her."

"Alke?" Feferi mutters quietly while John turns to look at Karkat. 

"Did not!" John frowned, "She's just one of the coolest heroes, even if no one knows anything about her."

"Spit it out already." Bro orders from the doorway, and John blushes a bit before continuing.

"Alke doesn't totally have a set place she works, but she started in the Midwest and has kind of worked outwards from there. She and Reaper met up in St Louis two years ago, and she stopped him from destroying anything and actually got him to walk away from a bad scene. She hopped around the east coast for a while, and no one's ever really able to confirm her because she never leaves any damage or anything. No casualties, nothing. The bad guys always have like, zero damage done to them because her main method of fighting is talking to them." John's eyes are wide and excited. "She convinces them to stop! And if she can't, she has this green fighting staff that she absolutely kicks ass with. She can disappear kind of, I guess, almost like my windy thing, but pink, and shiny. And when she's had to fight a ton of people, copies of her spring up to fight, but the weird thing is that none of them look exactly like her. Almost like they're different versions of her."

WQ: Incredible…

The White Queen murmurs, hands pressed to her lips. Rose waits a moment for her to speak, but she doesn't, so she turns back to John instead.

"So those are the six of them? Hunter, Hoodwink, Mystic, Mage, Reaper, and Alke?"

"Alke! I knew it!" Feferi stands suddenly, totally throwing Eridan for a loop and making Karkat grip his phone to his chest with a wild look in his eyes. "I ran into her once! In DC!"

"You've met Alke?!" John practically shouts, and Gamzee moves a hand to his shoulder. Even Bro seems interested by this, actually turning to look full on at Feferi.

"Yes! She was very nice, very personable." Feferi grinned. "We worked together to remove a very rude man. She had such a way with words, almost as if she knew exactly what he was thinking at the time! We split ways afterwards, unfortunately. I would love to see her again." Feferi's brow furrowed. "There's always been something I can never quite put together, though. In the middle of the fight with the man's henchmen, she shouted Feferi instead of Nymph to warn me about a hit. I could never quite figure out how she would have known my real name."

"It's not exactly like you were hiding it." Eridan harrumphs, and Feferi shoots him a glare, but before it can go any further, Karkat interrupts.

"I, uh, may have a way to get ahold of Alke." He looks pained as he says it, as if he can't quite believe what he's saying.

John whips around, and Gamzee's hand gets a firmer grip on his shoulder. "You can get ahold of her?!?!"

Karkat nods, and Gamzee grins serenely, not quite looking at the Black Queen. "Knew firesis would find her way to us eventually."

Karkat looks at him for a minute, then shakes his head, as he often did when thinking about the nightmares he used to have. "Um, I think I might know her phone number? From a dream?"

Everyone bursts with questions, including the White Queen, but Rose and Dave just share a look of exasperation.

Well, it's not the craziest thing that's happened to them.

-

The call goes through.

Rose can't quite believe it, if she's honest, and she also can't quite believe that the call function works on Pesterchum, but regardless, she's one of the ones gathered around when Karkat types in the username ardorDeviant and her number and dials.

And it rings.

It rings a few more times before someone picks up. There's a quick scrabbling noise, as if the answerer doesn't have a firm grip on their phone, and then a distinctly female voice crackles through the speakers.

_"Hello?"_

John whines, and Gamzee has both hands on his shoulders in an instant, a funny kind of smile on the troll's face. Rose and Dave share another look. There's only a few of them gathered here, because Gamzee kindly informed them that Alke (Firesis?) gets nervous around large numbers of people, even through the phone. So, John, Rose, Dave, Karkat, Gamzee, and the White Queen all moved to a different room for the call. Why Gamzee seemed to suddenly know so much about her didn't really surprise Rose, but she is kind of miffed that he didn't contribute more to the meeting when they were in there. The rest of the group was now working on helping Sollux guess passwords to decode the rest of the data in the hub, and Rose could tell Jade was hovering just outside the door.

"Uh, hi." Karkat wheezed, looking with wide eyes that screamed HELP at Rose. "Is, uh, is this Alke?"

There's a pause, then the noise of someone readjusting their grip on the phone. _"Holy shit, Karkat?"_

Everyone freezes with wide eyes, and Karkat replies, "Um, ye-yes?"

_"Holy shit."_ They breathe again, a light laugh coming through the speakers. _"I can't believe it! Jegus, no matter what world, you always call me first! I thought I was going to have to come up there and find you, you big fuzzball!"_

Dave frowns at the word jegus, and John frowns at fuzzball. Karkat grimaces a bit, but when Gamzee knees him, he splutters out, "Yeah. Um, thanks? But, there's a slight problem. I don't totally remember who the fuck you are? I just had a dream and remembered this phone number and thought what the shit, why not. So here I am, calling you, and asking if you'll maybe grabyourotherplayersandcometoseattle."

The last part is a jumble of words, but Alke only laughs.

_"Easier said than done, honestly. Fran and Ivan are all the way across the world, and Emma's kind of down for the count right now."_

"Fran?" Karkat frowns, and Dave asks quietly, "Who the hell are Ivan and Emma?"

Apparently it's not quiet enough, because Alke screeches this time. _"Karkat, is that Dave? Holy shit, are you with everyone?!"_

"Alright, how the hell does she know me." Dave deadpans, face already struggling to stay stoic and unbothered.

_"Oh, jeez. Fuck. Alright."_ Alke clears her throat. _"Okay, so I remember all of the players? I can recognize your souls, I guess, is the way to put it. And when I've seen you all on the news and whatnot, doing your hero thing, I knew that I knew you from somewhere. So I remember you guys! Alec's the one to ask about everything else, though, he remembers the game and stuff. Shit, we should go get him first! Him and Luke will be the easiest to bring in, no problem, but I'm sure if you're with everyone, then Jade's there, and we could probably use her to go get Fran and Ivan--"_

"Hold on, hold on, shut the fuck up." Karkat interrupts, and the voice on the other end snickers before quieting. "How the hell do you remember everything when no one else does? And since when are you so buddy buddy with Jade, Ally?"

"Ally?" John mouths at Dave, but Karkat ignores them.

_"Well, I know Jade and I didn't talk much in the game, but we didn't really have a ton of time, to be fair."_ Alke--Ally? Firesis?--answers. _"But I've kept up with all you guys! I read up on you on the forums, and it looks like you all are doing really good on your powers!"_

"You didn't answer my first fucking question, you over exuberant human." Karkat's claws are pressed against his forehead. 

_"Oh!"_ Alke is completely undeterred by his tone. Incredible. _"Since I was a godtier heart player, I retained all my splinters and stuff and I can access a ton of their memories."_ Karkat is shaking now, and Alke continues quickly, as if she can sense his increasing emotions over the phone. If she is indeed a god tier player, Rose wouldn't be surprised. _"Look, maybe this is all better explained in person? I can send Jade my address, and whoever can come along really. Maybe not a ton of you, if that's alright. We can go talk to Luke and Alec and get them to fly over, but Emma, Fran and Ivan are going to be more of a problem, because none of them really remember anything, I think."_

A look is shared around the group, and the White Queen is actually pacing now at the edge of the room.

"Sure, why not?" Dave says, shrugging. "Let's get more people here, there isn't enough yet."

_"Sounds great."_ Alke says, and Rose can almost feel her grin through the phone. _"It'll be so great to see you all in person again! I can't wait!"_

A few more hurried farewells, and Karkat ends the call. Everyone stares in disbelief at each other, still a little baffled by what just happened.

"Firesis is a riot." Gamzee speaks, making Karkat jump. "Once she gets here, we'll get the motherfucking party started."

"That's ominous as fuck, thanks, Gamzee." Dave rolls his eyes, already moving to walk out of the room. "Whatever Gamzee thinks is a party will most definitely not be."

\- 

It takes a long time to figure out who's going on the re-con mission, which is to say, it goes exactly as Rose suspected. After arguing for nearly thirty minutes after Jade receives the address, it's decided that Jade, John, Karkat, and Dave will be the ones to go. As soon as it's decided, Karkat's phone pings, and Ally actually requests Rose come along, for some reason. That sets Karkat off, saying that there is now too many "shitheads" to keep under control. Kanaya and Bro are to remain here in case backup is needed, but otherwise, it should be a fairly simple task. Bro neither agrees nor disagrees, but he doesn't disappear, so obviously he's concerned enough to stay.

Which means that it will probably become horribly complicated.

Whatever happens, Rose knows that she feels better about the four of them sticking together, and also knows that between them, they should be able to handle anything.

Jade gathers them in the lobby, and Bro is actually the one to see them off. Dave's twitching as usual under his stare, but Rose grasps his hand firmly before turning to grab ahold of John's as well. "Ready when you are."

They head out to a car and Jade drives them haphazardly through the roads, taking corners so fast that Karkat gurgles from the backseat where he's pressed up against John. Once they reach their usual point, they unload, and Jade gathers everyone in a circle, a wide grin on her face.

"Ooookay!" Jade huffs, eyes flicking behind her glasses. No doubt she has the coordinates pulled up as she whistles for Bec. "Everyone hold on, and--"

It's a quick pinch, a flutter of her skirt, and Rose lands solidly on the grass. She's gotten much better at her landings, really. But she doesn't have much time to think about it before Jade is spinning around, eyes wide and wild as she hisses, "Shit, how did he--"

"Gamzee, what the _fuck?!"_ Karkat shrieks, no doubt drawing attention to them on this small lawn in front of an apartment building. It looks eerily similar to Dave's, actually, but she's distracted from that by looking at Gamzee, who apparently tagged along for this little outing despite not coming with them. Gamzee's form snaps quickly into place, the same blatantly dismissive look on his face.

Gamzee only shrugs as Karkat continues to curse. "Been a while since I've seen her. Missed her something fierce, you know?" Rose raises an eyebrow, but Gamzee ignores her, so she decides to let it rest. Alke seemed much more willing to give out information over the phone, so she should be able to get something out of her, at least.

John rolls his eyes, putting his arm around Karkat's shoulders as they turn to the front of the apartment building. All of them are in uniform--Dave in his god tier outfit, and Jade in her outfit vaguely reminiscent of the god tier, John in his now typical blue hoodie and jeans instead of his actual uniform--and Rose suggests that they move inside before they attract too much attention. Kanaya was working on John's uniform currently, and Rose suspected that it should be done within the next few days.

"So fucking weird." Dave mutters as they begin moving up the stairs as a group towards the fourth floor. "Literally the same layout. So weird." So Rose was right, then. It does look a lot like Dave's old apartment.

Once they reach the fourth floor, they begin looking for apartment 13, and Rose smiles. The numbers 413 seems to pop up around them a lot, doesn't it? Gamzee sputters around behind them, in and out of Rose's awareness, and she can't help but turn on her sight as John knocks on the door.

Someone opens the door, and Rose turns her sight off almost immediately. The person in the doorway burns as brightly as Bro, if maybe a little warmer, with a few more layers. She blinks back to her regular vision to see a girl about their age, maybe a tad older, with dyed bright red hair above a well-tanned face and deep green eyes. She's closer to John's build, somewhere between the solidness of Kanaya and the curves of Jane, and she's short, shorter than Rose at least.

"Oh my god," The girl breathes, eyes wide. John's close to floating off the floor, Rose can tell. It's not every day you get to meet your favorite hero. Well, for them it is.

"Alke, I presume?" Rose smiles, lifting an eyebrow in greeting. They had all taken their masks off upon reaching the floor, and Alke brightens up.

"Just Ally, to you guys." She grins, and then her eyes focus on Dave. There's a second where they just stare at each other, something warm drifting through the air, and then she leaps forward suddenly, wrapping him in a hug before he can so much as flash away or stop time.

Which is incredibly fast, now that Rose thinks about it. There are a lot of things that echo familiarly about Ally and her friends to Rose, but it takes a lot longer to piece them all together once she figures it out. But for now, Rose is surprised, John's mouth has dropped open, and Dave is-- _hugging back?_ Dave is hugging her. Really, really hugging her. Like, hand in her hair and one tight around her shoulders hugging her. John looks like he's going to explode.

Alright. Weirdness-o-meter has officially begun clicking higher for the day.

"Oh my god, it's been so long." Ally's voice is muffled, arms wrapped tightly around Dave's middle as her face presses against his shirt. "You all look so good! And healthy. And not dead. That's important."

"Yeah, you too." Dave's voice is quiet from where his face is bent to her head, and then he jolts, seemingly realizing what he's doing. His arms unwrap quickly from where they had grabbed on to her, and he jumps back, immediately sticking his hands in his pockets and absolutely avoiding looking at Rose. She's definitely going to ask him about that later. He clears his throat. "Yeah, you know, dead kids are the thing we are trying to avoid, here."

"Right." She grins at him, completely undeterred by his sudden backing away. She gestures to everyone, "Come in! We can jump straight from my apartment to wherever, I just gotta finish packing a few things before we go."

Everyone follows her in, in varying states of surprise over the hug thing. Rose shuts the door behind her, almost startling when Gamzee is directly in front of her suddenly, but she merely sighs and moves around him. Jade immediately seats herself on the cushy couch while everyone else just stands around awkwardly.

It's a small studio apartment, the couch and a small tv in one corner by the windows that lead out onto a fire escape, a tiny kitchenette that seemingly only contains a microwave and a coffee machine, and the bed is pushed back into the far corner by a door that presumably leads to a bathroom. It's a little messy, but cozy, and Rose feels herself relaxing instantly from the vibes it gives off. It reeks of familiarity, but maybe that's just because of the two bookcases that hold numerous copies of books Rose herself used to own.

In fact, as she looks around the apartment, she almost gets a sense of bits and pieces of all of her friends. There's an old sewing machine with something green under the needle, several potted plants not far from the window, a meager stack of well-loved comic books, a few old looking cameras, and pictures obviously printed out from the internet of lots of heroes. Rose can spot a couple of newspaper clippings of Heir, and one picture that looks like someone attempted to get a picture of Flashstep and Puppeteer but honestly just looks like a giant blur of orange and red. All of her belongings looked picked-over, however, so Rose is guessing Ally's been going through her piles and taking her favorites from each.

"I mean, don't get me wrong, having a sylladex again is great." Ally's saying, continuing to move around them. As they watch, a case of water bottles disappears into thin air as if to be an example, and Jade gives a small coo of appreciation. "Super handy. But sometimes it just feels better packing like normal, you know?" She stuffs a sweatshirt into her backpack, and Rose can see the dark maroon leggings of her hero uniform hanging off of her bed. Karkat googled the six heroes before they left, showing everyone what they looked like. Most of them fought in black outfits, simple kevlar things, while the Hunter had been in shades of grey and Alke wore bright pink and red that made Kanaya huff in annoyance.

"Oh! I should probably change." Ally straightens up, holding her hands out with her back still to them, and Rose's eyes widen as she watches Ally's green t-shirt turn into a dark pink, her black leggings switching to maroon-ish pants, green vans appearing on her feet and a large pink hood similar to the one a god tier John wore. She spins around, and Rose gets an eyeful of the heart symbol from Sburb displayed large and dark across the chest of her shirt. "Since Dave and Jade are kind of already in versions of them, might as well join the party, am I right?" As they watch, the leggings shorten to a cropped legging style, the t shirt becomes less fitted, and the hood shortens to a more reasonable length. Clearly, she's had some practice with her abilities.

"You're an heir, too?" John grins, and Ally's face lights up as he recognizes it. 

"Yeah! The Heir of Heart, at your service." She gives a little mock bow, Jade clapping a bit. As Ally straightens back up, her face freezes, and Rose follows her gaze to where Gamzee is standing, half propped up by a chair and looking out the window.

"Gam--" She cuts off, voice suddenly gone hoarse, and that makes Gamzee's eyes snap directly to her. The effect is unnerving, but Ally's looking back like it's welcomed. "I--Shoot, I didn't even see you before, I didn't know you were here. I didn't recognize your--you feel off." Rose can see Ally constricting on herself, arms coming to wrap around her middle, and gets the vaguest sense of worry coming from her direction. With a brow raised, Rose turns on her other sight, looking at the area around Ally instead of directly at her.

Small wisps of her light are radiating outwards, fading into a pink vapor before disappearing quickly. Rose had a theory when John was describing her powers, and Rose can smile to herself as she sees them confirmed. Alke is a sort of empath--a strong one. She can sense the emotions of others and perhaps even manipulate them as well as substituting others emotions with her own if they're strong enough.

Vaguely, she wonders just how Ally had not seen Gamzee. He'd been in plain sight the entire time. 

Gamzee only shrugs, eyes going soft as he watches her, and that gets Karkat's attention. Rose looks back to Gamzee, and makes the connection. Gamzee hasn't looked that softly at anyone other than Karkat, sometimes not even John. But she bets if John didn't already have a hand on Karkat's shoulder, he'd be much closer to flying off the handle.

"What--how are you?" She stutters, one side of her mouth quirking up in a grin. 

"Motherfucking great, now." Gamzee responds, voice smooth and more even-keeled than Rose has heard since he arrived at the labs. Gamzee hardly even sounded that relaxed when first joining into the moirallegiance with them.

Ally smiles back, the look on her face mirroring his, and Karkat actually bristles now, shoulders hunching up while John looks on in confusion. Rose gets the feeling that this could get very awkward very fast.

"Anyone wanna explain why you're fucking eye-papping my moirail?" He rasps, voice with an edge of grittiness that has John rubbing harder circles into the troll's shoulder.

"Your--" Ally breaks the gaze, looking to Karkat in surprise. "You two--you're moirails?" She looks back to Gamzee again for confirmation, but Karkat snaps his fingers, bringing her attention back to him.

"Yes, I am! So is this meathead." Karkat gestures to John. "They're mine. So could you please back off?"

"Oh, I'm so sorry, I had no idea." Ally frowns, and Dave, closest to her, frowns in the same expression. No doubt her emotions were seeping out of her. Ally's aura was growing stronger by the second. "I didn't mean to--" She cuts off again, looking back to Gamzee. Rose can tell Ally is really troubled now. "So, are we--?"

"Are you _what?!"_ Karkat snaps, and Gamzee cuts him off.

"Not in this plane, firesis." Gamzee cocks his head, still with that small smile on his face. "Don't think I motherfuckin' forgot. Nah, still got it all up here." He taps the side of his head with his claw, then reaches out a hand to her, palm up. That's the smoothest his movements have been, none of his body checking out of existence, and instead he takes a couple steps forward like a normal troll. "Could never forget about you."

"What the hell are you talking about--" Karkat wheezes, looking torn between confusion or spontaneous combustion, and Gamzee looks back at Karkat as if just realizing he was a part of this conversation as well. John, however, was watching Ally carefully, like he couldn't decide what he was feeling. Perhaps because of his recent emotional turmoil, he might be more susceptible to Ally's mood altering powers. 

"She was mine in another life, brother. Palest diamond of any universe, but all miraculous things must motherfuckin' end, right?" He looks back to Ally, who looks at him with a sad smile. "Maybe in the next one."

"The next one." Her sad smile gets a rueful twist, then she looks back to Karkat, and Rose feels a small breeze of apology glance by her and instead move to Karkat. The pink wisps around her deteriorate rapidly, until just the ones closest to her are present. "I really am sorry. Remember how I said I get all the memories of my other selves? That, uh--that was one of them. Gamzee and I were moirails at one point, in the game I think. It was a weird time, a lot of things had gone wrong. Alec can explain all that. But! I respect what you guys have, and I am very happy for you." Gamzee reaches his hand forward again, and she grasps it in a quick shake, patting the back of his hand before letting go. "Really happy for you, Gam."

He grins back, and then Dave decides to speak, with impeccable timing as usual.

"So are we gonna go kidnap some heroes or what."

"Yes!" Ally snaps out of it, Gamzee moves back to leaning on the chair, and Karkat settles for only glaring at her. "Yes, we are! I think I'm ready--" She turns, putting on her backpack and sticking out a hand. A green fighting staff appears, wooden and solid in her hand, and John brightens up again. "Ready when you guys are!"

Jade jumps up, grabbing everyone's hands. Karkat grumbles when Gamzee moves to stand beside Ally, but John bumps his hip against the other's, and he quiets. Jade looks to Ally with something close to excitement. "Where to?"

\--- 

St Louis is so much hotter than Seattle, and worse than Houston, even. It's humid as fuck and Dave is not having it. Thankfully, his jammies seem to be on board, and he quickly gets a t-shirt under his cape instead of the usual sweatshirt.

"They're not far from here!" Alke--shit, Ally--grins, bopping along the sidewalk with Jade right next to her. Actually, they're holding hands, but for some reason, that doesn't strike Dave as weird. It should, it really should, they literally just met her, but for some reason, the action seems familiar to Dave. Jade and Ally held hands all the time, why would it be weird now? They were close despite never talking. See, he shouldn't know that, but something is just so familiar. Too familiar, really. And he's been skeeved out by just how normal and familiar she feels since she hugged him in the hallway.

He honestly couldn't explain what happened. He has no idea. Sometimes, in a fight, he does things without thinking, just acting on instinct, and can't really give a reason why. That was totally the same thing. She had grinned at him, rushed forward to hug him, and he had been hit with a huge wave of oh my gog it's been too long since I've seen her I can't believe she survived and hugged her back, his hands going to their usual spot in her hair.

Except there wasn't a usual spot. And he didn't know her.

Fuck. Rose was going to have a field day with this, wasn't she?

He could feel her waggling her eyebrows from here, so he kept his vision trained on the back of Ally's hood, flapping gently in the breeze that had been circulating around since they landed here. John seemed extra happy too, almost like he was pumped that she was here, too. Figures that those two would just accept it and move along. Lame kids.

That didn't explain why Bro was so interested in Ally, though.

Alke.

Whatever.

"Just around this corner--there!" Ally grins, pointing ahead to a home nestled between others exactly like it on either side. John freezes, and Karkat practically jumps forward to throw an arm around his waist.

It looks exactly like John's house.

"Jesus shit." Dave groans, facepalming. "Do we have to deal with house clones, too? I thought human clones were going to be it, but nope, houses and apartments have clones, too. Great."

"It is strange." Rose muses, an eye on John, who's calmed down now. Ally cocks her head at him, and John heaves a huge sigh almost immediately after the movement. 

"I'm good." He tells them, and Ally's still watching him, eyes growing wide. He frowns at her. "What? I'm fine, I promise." He doesn't sound fine, but hey, they got the three ring shooshpapping circus all here, so chances are he'll be handled. Besides, they've got Ally's weird thing, so that should be more than enough to make sure John's okay with the doppelganger of his horror house.

"You're--tangy?" She stops, looking to Gamzee, who's looking back with an equally concerned face. Something seems to pass between them, complete with a couple pink sparks around Ally's hands, enough that it makes Karkat look like a hedgehog all over again.

"Can we move on, please?" He growls, and Dave smirks before taking a couple steps forward. He falls into step beside Ally, watching the pink sparks fade away.

"Tangy?" 

She rolls her eyes. "Heart thing, you wouldn't get it."

Ally leads the way up the walk, nudging Dave out of the way to reach the doorbell first. He tugs on her hood, and she grins back at him as the doorbell rings. He smiles back, then remembers they aren't close yet, they just fucking met, so he scowls and looks straight ahead to the door. Both Ally and Jade roll their eyes next to him, and then the door is opening--

\--To reveal a boy who just might be Ally's clone.

"Fucking dammit," Dave mutters under his breath, and the boy's eyes widen as he takes in everyone on his front door step.

"Oh my--" He looks back to Ally, a small grin beginning to show on his face. "How did you find them?"

"They found me." She shrugs, smiling back. "Figured they'd be the last straw to convince Luke that you two need to head out." The boy nods, green eyes alight--seriously, they're the same color as Ally's, and the roots of her hair are the same red-brown that's on Alec's head. Their freckles are even the same, for fuck's sake--

"How have you been, Alec?" She jumps forward, breaking the space between them with a hug. "It's been so long since I've been able to stop by!" Dave tries to reassure himself with that, but it doesn't really work. See? She hugs everyone, no need to get weird about hugging her back. This dude seems a little less familiar, but there's still something about him that makes Dave want to protect him. Jesus fuck. What was going on with him today?

"Good! We've been great." Alec answers, and pulls back from the hug with a smaller grin than Ally's. It's almost like he's the guy version of her, except turned down like twenty notches. "I've gotten almost everything written down now, so you can take a copy, if you want." Alec holds his hand out, and a book appears there so suddenly Dave's fingers twitch. That's a heavy ass book, where did it come from?

"Do all of you have sylladexes?!" Jade asks, eyes wide as she looks at the book. Alec grins back at her, chest puffing out a little with the indirect compliment.

"Just me and Ally. We remember the most, so we can use it. Luke can kind of do it sometimes, but it's a lot harder for him to pull things back out." He turns to look at Ally suddenly, as if making sure he could say that. Blushing a bit, he hands the book past Ally and to Rose, who takes it with an eyebrow raised.

"You'll like this the most." He stammers, then pushes his glasses up his nose. "That's a basic synopsis of our game and how we got pulled into yours. I tried to be brief, but there was a lot of super lucky stuff that you needed the context for in order to see how it helped."

"I'm sure it'll be a fascinating read." Rose assures him, then looks to Karkat. "Mind if I put this in your backpack?"

Karkat looks like he's seen a ghost, but he nods quietly, handing over his backpack without a word. Everyone casually ignores this, and Dave is starting to get jumpy when Ally breaks the silence.

"Alright, John--and Karkat, I guess, if you want, you guys can get them to the airport and then you can meet back up with us." Ally's telling them, turning to look at Rose. "We'll be heading to New Orleans, next, to get Emma, and that's where you can find us, and then we'll all head over to get Fran and Ivan!"

"Um, Ally? I'm not sure I can jump that far." John's frowning, and Ally looks back over at him, surprised. As they make eye contact, his brow smooths back out, and she shrugs. Karkat's cheek twitches, almost comically.

"You'll be able to center in on Jade, Rose, and Dave." She smirks, already backing down the steps, closer to where Gamzee and Rose are standing. "Just focus on them, and you'll get there."

"Wait, why the fuck aren't you staying here?" Karkat argues. "We've never met these fuckers before, why do we have to convince them to go?"

A look passes between Alec and Ally, and Karkat shrieks. "Stop with the knowing looks! Fucking quit it! You're doing them with Gamzee, and even Dave, and now with this kid, and I'm sick of being out of the loop! What the hell aren't you telling us and why is it such a big fucking deal?!?!" At the end of it, Karkat's voice cracks, and Dave has to resist the urge to slow clap. Usually it takes a lot more for Dave to work him up that much, and Ally seemed to be able to do it in just one minute.

"Um." She states intelligently, glancing at Gamzee as if for help. Karkat shrieks incoherently, making some sort of vague 'cut it out' gesture, and John puts his arm around the troll to quiet him.

Ally makes a worried face, then points. "Well, that's Alec, kind of technically my brother via meteor stuff but also a cloning and time mishap. He's super smart and knows a lot about the game. He's been living with Luke for a few years now. Luke's probably inside somewhere, and, um. Luke and I aren't on the best of terms? So I don't think seeing him right now would be a very good option. Aaaannnd, that's basically it so far."

"Luke is Reaper, right?" Jade asks, continuing when Ally grimaces and nods. "I thought you two got along well? Didn't you stop him from like, leveling a city? And save his butt a year ago maybe?"

Dave looks at Jade, about to correct her on which superhero did that--and makes the connection. A fucking whole year late, _smooooth, Strider._ Alke and Apollo are obviously the same person. Jeeesus. From the look on John's face, he's still a little lost and will most likely get it later.

"That might be the reason they don't get on well." Alec glances over his shoulder really quick, then closes the door behind him and steps out on the porch. He's a few inches taller than Ally, but also built stocky and strong looking. "Luke tends to err on the side of 'no emotions ever' as a rule, and Ally tends to bring that out in people. Emotions, I mean." He grimaces, the look mirroring Ally's. "He kind of overloads on emotion when they're together, and it's probably just best for everyone involved if we don't mess with that. Things tend to blow up when he's upset."

"So that's why he prefers no emotions." Rose murmurs, and Dave can practically see her taking notes in her head.

"Yeah. So...yeah. Ally should probably head out with the rest of you, and she and Luke can meet again in a more controlled environment, and either you can come with us to Seattle or regroup with them." Alec tells them, looking to John for the last part. 

Everyone shares a look again, no doubt driving Karkat further up the wall, and John shrugs as Rose nods.

"Yeah, we'll stick around and help them out, and if we aren't going to head back to meet you guys, I'll text you!" John smiles, then put a hand on Karkat's shoulder and steers them toward Alec. "Lead the way!"

Looking on good-naturedly at Karkat's grumbling, Alec leads them into the house with a wave over his shoulder, and as the door closes, Ally turns to Jade with a deep sigh and a forced smile. "Well? Ready to go?"

Jade glances warily at Gamzee, who watches back plainly. Ah, yes, the x factor. The thing they always need to be super cautious about. Dave is suddenly hyper-aware of the fact that they just separated him from both his moirails, so if something happened, if he went full juggalo again--

"I'll be **fine.** " Gamzee's voice scratches on the end, looking over at Dave so quickly that it throws him. He glances up in surprise, unable to stop a sword flying from his sylladex into his hand. Just as he's sure Gamzee's about to face him head on, he gets hit by a wave of--lavender? Why does it smell like lavender?

"Gam?" Ally speaks up, only about a foot away from Gamzee, standing in between the two of them now. Rose has moved between them as well, a hand on Dave's chest from where she stands just behind Ally. Jade's even got a few sparks around her finger. At his name, Gamzee looks down at her--and his limbs snap back into place. Dave hadn't even realized he was separating, but now he's super thankful that he's got an ex-diamond here or whatever the hell Gamzee said she was. She's looking up at him, completely unafraid of him, and as he settles back down into this dimension, the lavender picks up, and everyone settles back down.

"Incredible." Rose is smiling serenely, looking almost sleepy. "Your powers over heart are truly incredible."

"Thanks." Ally says off-handedly, not taking her eyes off Gamzee, who was now looking down at her in confusion.

"How?" Is all he says, and Ally doesn't answer, just looks at him with that same concerned yet stern gaze. So Gamzee tries again, "It ain't you no more, you aren't him. So why--"

"Serendipity?" Rose throws out, still smiling, and her eyes have now closed. "Coincidences tend to not be coincidences where we're involved, especially cross-universally." Great. The most competent person on the team is now ready for a nap. Shit, was Ally the reason for the lavender? Probably. Fuck if he knew how heart powers work. Rose was closest, after Dave, so maybe she was getting hit the hardest? Whatever the reason, Dave didn't like it, so he grabbed Rose's arm and pulled her back away from Ally and Gamzee a few feet.

"Serendipity." Gamzee repeats, eyes narrowing as he looks at Ally. With a snort, he finally looks away, and the lavender abruptly cuts off. Rose blinks a few times, frowning when Dave flicks her ear, but hey, he had to be sure she was alright.

"Ummm, are we done, here?" Jade asks warily, as if she's unsure if she should interrupt or not. "Rose's mom wanted us back by six tonight, and it's already two there."

"Yeah, he'll be fine." Ally smiles quickly--a little too quickly--gesturing to where Gamzee has wandered off a few feet. "Alright, lemme pull out her address…"

Dave sighs, a few feet back from the conversation. Yeah, nothing was really a surprise to him anymore. Weird troll about to rampage and stopped by the power of lavender? Same shit, different day.

-

Alec is nothing like Ally, and that's music to Karkat's ears.

Seriously, he was getting sick of that red-headed weirdo. And how familiar she seemed to him. He hadn't dreamed about her other than that pesterlog, as far as he knew, so why did he think he knew her? It was kind of like the feeling from Kanaya and Sollux, but less intense, and more...warm?

Fuck.

Alec was like a cool drink of water compared to her. His voice almost never changed volume, and he didn't have that plastered on smile all the time, and his red hair seemed more auburn than fucking firetruck. Alec quickly informed them what was going on, and didn't seem to spare any details that Karkat just knew anyone else would leave out.

It was amazing, honestly. And when Karkat went on a rant about how sick he was of meeting familiar strangers and all these game shenanigans, Alec just smiled and nodded. Even John was rolling his eyes, and Luke was already walking away--but Alec just agreed, and offered to help explain anything Karkat felt like he didn't quite get yet.

"I don't need any fucking explanations." Karkat wheezed, but Alec just shrugged, saying, "That's fine! Just happy to help."

Luke had apparently had it as well, so once John was done showing off his powers and gushing to Reaper about how cool his were, they were easy to hop over to the airport and get some tickets.

"Ready, Karkat?" John asked, and Karkat looked away from where he had been ranting to Alec like he was being pulled out from underwater.

How had he been talking so much? What was he even talking about? 

"Oh, right." Alec's shoulders sagged a bit, one side of his mouth quirking up in a weird smile. "You guys are heading back with Ally."

"Fuck, no." Karkat gasped, and John's eyebrows raised. Scrambling to cover his tracks, Karkat hastily not-quite-shouted, "She's infuriating! I don't want to see her for as long as possible, if we're about to be stuck with her at the lab for so long. No way. I need a few more hours of peace, at least. For my sanity."

John stared at him for a minute, and in a weird flash of deja vu, Karkat remembered seeing Ally giving him that exact same look before. Shaking himself, Karkat insisted, "For my _sanity,_ John."

"Well…" John looked towards the doors of the airport, then shrugged. "I suppose they can handle it. Jade'll be able to jump them wherever, I guess. Let me tell Rose really quick." He pulled out his phone to text her, and Karkat ignored how Alec seemed to be almost glowing with happiness next to him. A subtle glow, though. 

Luke rolled his eyes once more, leaning against the ticket counter. "So am I buying two or four tickets?" He raised an eyebrow, and Karkat was hit again by the memory of the dream. Luke was just as big then as he was in the dream, although more scars littered his arms from years of fighting crime. This Luke looked stonier, more chiseled, like he'd been carved out of bad memories and come out stronger. It gave Karkat the creeps.

"Four." Karkat answered before turning back to Alec. "Now, where was I?"

Getting through baggage was easy since Alec could captchalogue anything that would set off the sensors, and even though John was worried that Rose hadn't responded yet, they got on the flight with no problem. Luke didn't say a single thing and Karkat felt like he was telling his whole life story, starting from when he had become Hemogoblin all the way up to today. Alec asked a few questions, but mostly just listened intelligently, and Karkat could not. Stop. Talking.

"Because honestly, does she have to grin all the time? It's honestly so fucking creepy." Karkat began mumbling as the plane entered the last half an hour of the flight. In the seat next to him, John shifted a bit, still trying to nap, and Karkat patted his knee idly. 

"Ally just smiles a lot when she's around people." Alec shrugged, interrupting for the first time since the retelling of John's Trickster episode. "She didn't have a lot of friends growing up, so it's just exciting for her to be around people. And since she remembers all of us, it just means that much more to her."

"But she's weird, you get that, right?" Karkat presses, and Alec nods and laughs.

"Yeah, she is. But it's just what makes her so Ally, you know? Like, she wouldn't be the same if she wasn't so exuberant about everything. Being a heart player, you already kind of feel things more than the average person, and as an heir of heart, you get emotions to their full extent. So, happiness, sadness, anger, love, hate, all of it is felt probably eight times more than the average person. And with other people around, whose emotions she can feel as well, that just increases it. I'm pretty sure she loves it, though, feeling so much." Alec pauses, shooting a glance at Karkat like he wasn't sure why he had said so much. "Sorry, that was a lot."

"It's fine." Karkat shrugs, tucking his hands into his lap. "It's interesting, I've never thought about it that way. Is that why she's so lonely?"

Both of them froze, and Luke actually looked up from where he had been doodling across the aisle.

"How do you know that?" Alec asked, eyebrows raised, and Karkat could only shake his head.

"I don't...I don't know. It...I think it's something from a dream? Maybe? Fuck." He rubbed his eyes hard, and Alec winced and rubbed the back of his neck. "Like, I just get this feeling from her. Like she's been so alone. And it...it's weird." Karkat frowned.

The real reason he didn't like Ally was because of the feelings he got around her. He knew it, but he didn't want to admit it. He could tell that she was sad, or something, and she was lonely, and that seeing them had turned her entire life around. Like Jade, she seemed to live for this game, this game that destroyed everything but gave her every chance to do the things she had only ever hoped for. And Karkat loved her for that, honestly. Like, a totally platonic love, but he knew they would be best friends. They had been, apparently, in the previous universe. She was infuriating at worst and fondly annoying at best, but they got along, and he loved the person she was. Confident, happy, excited, strong, and he was almost jealous.

She was everything he wanted to be.

So when Gamzee had been looking at her like that, it had lit some sort of jealous fire inside of him that he couldn't stop, and he hated her for being a better version of him.

He hated himself for thinking that.

"Yeah." Alec said quietly, looking down at his hands. "She...well, I can explain it better later on. But, yeah. She was really lonely before she had any of us. Really lonely."

Across the aisle, Luke scratches out hastily something that looked like a sword on fire, and shoves it in his pocket. Overhead, the light to put seatbelts on comes on, and Karkat does so, hands shaking a bit.

Alec was cool. Luke was moody, but seemed okay. Ally was…

Gamzee was right.

Having Ally around was going to be interesting.

\- 

So Ally's apartment looked like Dave's, Alec and Luke's place looked like John's, and now there's another one to add to the house clone list.

"I keep finding more and more things to call incredible." Rose's brow is furrowed. "I'm going to need a new word soon."

Apparently, this old rickety mansion down here in the swamp is a dead ringer for the one from New York that Rose used to live in before she blew it skywards. Universe, 5 billion, Kids in Pajamas, 0. 

"Okay, before we go inside." Ally spins around on the front walk, her hair still standing out vibrantly somehow even though they were standing in the shade of some particularly creepy looking trees. "There's a pretty specific reason why I needed Rose to come along."

Instantly, Dave's mind jumps to horrorterrors, and now he's about two seconds away from sprinting away from the creepy house. That looks like what Jade's come to as well, and her eyes widen. Rose merely purses her lips, and asks, "And what was that reason?"

Ally looks at all of them, blinking quickly. "Oh, man, you guys do not need to be that afraid." She frowns a bit, then smiles as the air around them seems to lighten. "It's nothing too bad, I swear. I just read somewhere and have some sort of vague memory that you're good at mind stuff?"

"Well, I'm not a mind player." Rose tells her quietly, head cocking slightly to the side. "What do you mean by mind stuff?"

Ally facepalms, and Dave smirks. "This is so stupid. But, uh, do you guys know about inversion stuff? In the game?" When no one says anything, Ally rushes through an explanation. "Okay, so basically, shit can go sideways and you can invert your aspect and class and end up something else. That is generally bad news. Emma was supposed to be a life player, but she was really really screwed up. And some of that carried over into this life, I think? The inversion thing. Life to Doom. Whatever. She was kind of careless about hurting people when we were younger, back when we were Artemis and Apollo." 

Bingo. John would be pissed he missed this.

"And that's why we stopped fighting together, because I hated hurting people." Ally's face looked remorseful. "I could feel it every time she hurt them, and I was sick of it. Anyways, we split up, and a couple years ago, I could tell she was getting worse. So I popped over there--right in time, I guess--and took her away from people to here." She gestured to the abandoned mansion behind her. "Her mom used to live here, but she passed away. So we stayed here for a while, and then she got worse, and I may have convinced her to go into a coma?"

Which-- _what._

"You what?" Dave asked, eyebrows rising up his head without his approval.

"Convinced her?" Rose clarifies. "You convinced her into a self-induced coma?"

Ally at least looks like she's sorry. "I didn't know what to do! She was going to hurt people!"

"No, I'm not talking about the reasons why, although those are interesting and say a lot about your reasoning skills." Rose continues calmly, while Jade's eyes are practically bugging out of her head. "I want to know how."

"Uh. Talking, I guess." Ally shrugs, although her brow is still furrowed. "I just told her she was going to do bad things that she would regret and that it'd probably be best if she lay low for a while, maybe a long time. And then she went to sleep and hasn't woken up."

"Is she _alive?!"_ Jade asks, and Ally looks appalled.

"Of course! I stole an IV drip and the stuff from the hospital so she's been fine, just sleeping." She turns back to Rose, eyes wide. "That's why I need you. I can't wake her up, so I think we need to go in and wake her up, you know? Like, in her brain."

Rose narrows her eyes a bit. "How firmly were you suggesting that she lay low?"

Ally grimaces even more. "Does that matter?"

"If we're attempting to go inside her brain and pull her out of this, it very well could."

Ally groans. "We were arguing. She was insisting she was fine, and her weird ghosty things were starting to pop up, and I got pissed and started yelling at her. And then she got this weird look on her face, said 'okay', and passed out." Ally wiped a hand down her face. "Look, I feel super bad about it, but it had to happen! And now we need to get her out of this coma safely if we're about to play the game again. And if she comes out still inverted, it's not going to be good. Which is why we'll need Jade and Dave there, in case it gets violent, because they're both super strong." She looked around to everyone there once more, pleading. "Can you guys help me or not?"

Dave looks to Jade, who looks to Rose, who's still watching Ally carefully. Behind all of them, Dave can tell Gamzee's gone weirdly still again, staring at Ally. After a moment, Rose speaks.

"Fine. But he stays out of the mindscape." She points at Gamzee, and Ally nods quickly.

"That's totally fine. They didn't like each other anyways."

Jade gives Gamzee a weird look, and Gamzee shrugs. "She was a bitch."

Dave laughs, holding his hands on his stomach. "Oh my god, this is great. Alright, when do we get to go into her head?"

Rose gestures to Ally, who turns hesitantly and leads them up the front steps and into the house. 

It's dark and cool inside, a much better temperature than outside. The air feels still in here, like an abandoned house would. But as they move through the rooms and turn left from the hallway into the kitchen, Dave can start to see the signs of people living here. The kitchen looks more used than the one at Ally's apartment, the cupboards stocked and the counters covered in what looks like medical supplies.

"Were you stealing from hospitals?" Jade asks, and Ally doesn't make eye contact with anyone, but nods.

"Only what I needed."

Empty IV bags lay in the trash can, and they take one more left into what must be the living room. On a big couch, propped up by pillows and covered with a blanket, lies a girl asleep, an IV bag hooked up through her arm. She's unnaturally skinny, much like Rose right after her grimdark incident, and her blonde hair looks like it's well past when she would have last gotten a haircut. Despite the unnatural pallor of her face, she has well defined features, and Dave thinks with a weird feeling that she could have been pretty, but missed her chance and shot straight into 'hot villain'. 

Yeah, he's never saying that out loud.

"Her vitals and everything are okay." Ally says quietly, crossing her arms. Gamzee's a couple feet away, watching her with the same expression John had earlier, like he wasn't quite sure what to think. Rose looks over the girl, no doubt doing her weird mind thing if the golden eye on her forehead is any indication, and nods.

"It seems like you did a good job taking care of her." Jade offers politely, and Ally shrugs, looking to Rose. 

"So? Can you do it?"

"It's going to be highly atypical." Rose starts, pauses, purses her lips. After a few more moments, she nods. "But I should be able to do this. Can you all stand equidistant from each other, in a semi-circle?" Rose turns, giving Gamzee an almost sneer. "And you need to stay far away. I can't have any of your usual tricks interfering." 

Gamzee nods, backing away, and Ally watches him go before stepping right next to Emma. Rose takes up the spot on the other side of the couch, and Jade and Dave fill in what seems to be okay spots. Rose takes a deep breath, closing her eyes, and they go.

\- 

Dave really is not a fan of the mind thing anymore. With John at least, it had felt familiar, because he'd been going in to rescue a friend. With Emma, though, it feels foreign and evil and like it's out to get him.

Her mind is a lot like what an evil swamp an evil witch would live in. Like what you'd picture in a fairy tale. There are gnarled trees all over the place with twisting black branches and that creepy spanish moss hanging off all of the branches. There's not really a defined path through the trees, and everyone's in their god tier outfits.

Immediately, Rose and Jade switch theirs to something more practical, but Ally seems distracted as she looks around, not paying attention to how young she now looks. To be honest, it reminds Dave of the game footage, when he had had to watch a bunch of thirteen year olds running around fighting things. She's shorter, face rounder, not looking like she had really gone through puberty yet. Weirdest of all, her hair is its natural red-brown, a couple shades darker than Alec. She looks so small, and worried, and not at all like the incredible fighter John says she is. 

It kind of makes him sick to his stomach, now.

"Where do we go?" Ally asks, still spinning in a slow circle. "I don't like the looks of this."

"Nor do I." Rose replied, them immediately produced a shining gold rope, using her powers to loop it around everyone's waists. "I don't want us getting lost. Unlike John's mind, we may not be welcome here if she doesn't know us."

"Yeah, Emma didn't make it to the merged session." Ally confirms quietly, and Jade gives her a look.

"Our sessions merged, too?"

"Well, Alec definitely knows a lot more about that than I do." Ally rubs the back of her neck, looking at the rope. "But, yes? In a few ways, if I'm remembering correctly. She started going bad in our session, and then right before we merged, she um...didn't make it. So she probably won't know you guys." Ally sighed. "But she'll be civil, I hope. If we catch the right Emma."

Rose merely raises an eyebrow at that, but proceeds to move forward. Everyone falls in behind her, picking their way through the undergrowth. Honestly, it was like he was in a bad fairy tale. It was so cliche, all these gnarled roots and the feeling like he was being watched. Just terrible writing, really.

"Did she have a sort of safe place?" Rose asks after a few minutes of quiet. "I've been sending out my awareness trying to locate her, but the results are too misconstrued to correctly interpret."

"Not really?" Ally rubs the back of her neck again, and with a glance in her direction, Dave notices she's holding Jade's hand again, and Jade doesn't seem any less put out by it. In fact, she looks pleased, like she thinks she's helping. "I mean, she mainly stayed in her own house in the game, but that's pretty much just because she didn't have any quests on her planet."

"No quests?" Dave asks, and Ally nods.

"Yeah. Her land was like a blank slate from what I remember. Nothing to do, so I didn't stay there too long." 

As she finishes the sentence, the ground beneath them rumbles, and the area around the group slowly shifts into a giant field with brightly colored flowers every couple feet. The sun shone brilliantly in the sky above, almost a complete 180 from where they were before.

"This is her land!" Ally announces, looking around with wide eyes. "Creepy."

"Definitely." Jade agrees, and Dave can see her fingers reaching toward where she usually reaches for a sylladex. "Why does her land look so different from how her mindscape was?"

"It may be the inversion Ally was talking about." Rose muses, starting forward again with the golden eye glowing brilliantly. "If she has in fact inverted to a doom player, her entire personality may have changed with it. If she's hiding where her land was, however…" Rose trails off as she looks at Ally, a calm smile spreading on her face, "There may still be a chance to save her."

Ally looks like she's going to burst with hope. It's honestly adorable, and Ally tugs on Jade's hand until they're walking up ahead with Rose, leaving Dave in the back with a sword in his hand as they make their way through the tall grass. There's a lot of pink and green flowers, often in clumps pretty close together, and the yellow and red ones are more spread out. Dave doesn't actually think this has to do with anything, but it gives him something to think about in the stretch of quiet. He doesn't know how long it's been in the real world, but here in the mind, they've only been in here about ten minutes.

After a few minutes of walking in silence, a house begins to take shape in the distance, and it's only a few more minutes before they recognize it as the same manor they had walked into back in real life. This house looks much more taken care of, with no paint chipping off the siding and with clean windows and healthy plant life all around.

"Well that's different." Ally comments, narrowing her eyes at the house. Jade looks at her curiously, and Ally points to the second floor. "There's only three windows on the front of the house. Not four. There's never been four, ever."

"Hiding in plain sight…" Rose murmurs, "But hiding from whom?"

"From Ally, probably." Dave sighs, hands on his hips. He's not totally sure if Rose was being rhetorical or not, but he was sick of how quiet it got. Soooo boring. "Because that's how our luck goes. But surprise! We found her anyways, and she'll be super excited about it, I bet."

"I honestly can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not right now." Jade smirks, then looks to Ally. "Are you ready?"

"I mean, we're here aren't we?" Ally replies, but it's only with a half-hearted smile. It might just be because Dave's grown up around people hiding emotions his whole life, and he was just recently exposed to the expressiveness that is John and Jade, but something seems different about the way Ally smiles. It's not a ploy, like Rose playing her mind games, but it's not quite genuine like Jade's always are. There's always something that feels...removed about it. Like it's just one step away from being the actual emotion. Almost like she's not putting the full force into it.

Now that he thinks about it, maybe that's for the better. If the weird lavender bubble and the worry wave from before are anything to go by, it seems like if Ally doesn't keep a check on it, she influences it all indirectly, without really meaning to. Maybe that's how she's learned to deal with her powers, by keeping everything behind something that seems like the right expression or the right emotion but doesn't really betray what she's really feeling.

Maybe Dave's projecting right now. Ha, take that Rose. Self diagnosis for the win.

Ally begins moving forward, taking the stairs a bit more slowly than she did in real life. The front door pushes open easily, not squeaky at all on its hinges, and none of the floorboards creak as they walk through the entry way.

"Well, you definitely did play a game of sburb, that's a thing that happened." Dave confirms as they walk through the rooms takes a look at the different items laying around. A couch has been pushed awry to make room for an alchemiter, there's a cruxite drowel in the hallway that they have to walk around, and several uncarved totems are stacked on the stairs, looking like they were being used as paperweights. The papers had tons of weird sketches on them, kind of looking like the physics homework Dave had seen John doing before, with graphs and formulas of all sorts. A few more of the papers have rough sketches of the spirographs that represent the gates in the game.

"Was Emma particularly interested in gate theories?" Rose asks, turning a head as they climb slowly up the stairs to look at a few of the papers.

Ally furrows her brow like she's thinking, then shakes her head. "No, I don't think so. Maybe...Fran? That sounds like something Fran would do. She was our space player, and she was super smart. She figured out a lot of the things about the game based on figuring out the code and kind of hacking her way through it."

"This is so interesting!" Jade coos, picking up a paper and reading it. "The math alone is super advanced, I can barely decipher it! Oh man, I can't wait to meet her!"

"You two will definitely get along." Ally reassures her, grinning. Jade folds the paper and tucks it into her pocket before continuing up the stairs, and Dave rolls his eyes. You can't save dream paper, Jade, that's not how it works.

Once they reach the upstairs, Ally's quick to point to a door. "That one, that one usually isn't there."

"Perhaps it's best if you go first." Rose says, gesturing for Ally to go forward. "She knows you, and once you've confirmed she's there, we can be introduced."

"If you're sure." Ally swallows and turns to the door, turning the knob slowly. This door creaks open, and inside the room smells like rotten tomatoes.

Or maybe like when you leave pasta out for too long in the sun and it all goes bad, or something. Whatever it is, it's gross, and it has Dave crinkling his nose immediately.

"Emma?" Ally calls into the room gently, undeterred by the smell. It occurs for the first time to Dave that if Ally's been taking care of Emma this whole time, then she's had to take care of...stuff. Gross stuff. Potty stuff. 

He definitely respects her a lot more. That's some hell of a dedication and loyalty to her friend.

"Emma, it's me." Ally says again, taking another step into the room. Rose, Dave and Jade all hover outside, Rose still keeping one hand tight on the golden rope around everyone's waists. There's a rustling in the room, like the sound from outside when they were walking through the grass, and a feeble voice calls back.

"Ally?"

"Oh, god, Emma." Ally rushes forward, and Rose lets her go, holding up a hand to tell Jade to wait. There's a weird slashing sound, and again, the smell of lavender wafts through the air, but a little less potent. "Emma, what's going on in here? What happened?"

"I...not sure. Haven't felt like moving for a long time, I guess."

"Oh, jeez...well, it's okay! It's all going to be okay, now. I'm here, and I'm going to get you out. And I've brought some people to help!"

"Who's here? Where...where is here?"

"Rose?" Ally calls quickly, and Rose steps in, all elegance and placating movements. Dave and Jade follow a little less gracefully, both trying to shove through the door at the same time.

The room is covered in old vines, a lot of them withered and decaying and a weird dark pink, like a tyrian blood color. Emma looks the same as Ally, way too young and bright eyed. She's got purple eyes a few shades lighter than Rose, and her purple t shirt hangs baggy off her bony shoulders. Ally's busy pulling vines away from where they've wrapped around Emma's arms and legs on the floor, and she throws a look over her shoulder to Rose and Dave thinks he hears a faint echo of someone saying, _Can you explain it somehow? I don't want to upset her._

Whoa, telepathy? No way.

"We're in your mind, Emma." Rose says smoothly. "My name is Rose, and these are my friends Dave and Jade. You've been asleep for a long time, and we came to wake you up."

Emma blinks a couple times, and as Ally finally breaks the last vine away, color rushes into Emma's cheeks, and something like understanding crosses her features.

"No, no, nononono--"

"Emma, it's okay!" Ally pulls her to her feet, ignoring as Emma casts terrified looks in the newcomers directions. Jade waves helpfully, but that only seems to scare her even more. "Emma, it's fine! We're getting you out of here!"

"No, no, I can't leave!" Emma protests, pulling her arm away from Ally. As she moves away, it looks like she ages a bit more, cheekbones growing more prominent and what little baby fat she had on her figure melting away. Next to her, Ally mainly stays the same, but her face gets a harder edge to it, like someone that's been through hell.

"What do you mean?" Ally asks, the lavender slowly drifting away. Slowly, the room begins to get a faint pink tinge to it.

"You put me here!" Emma shouts, and Rose holds up a hand again when Jade opens her mouth. Emma's looking around like she expects someone else to burst in, still shouting, "You put me in here! I can't _leave!"_

"No, that's what I'm saying!" Ally pleads, "I know I did, I guess, but it's okay to wake up now! I found people that can help and somewhere we can be safe!"

"I can never be safe." Emma barks out a bitter laugh, aging another few years until Ally finally looks like how she does outside. "Not from them. They always know where I am, they can always find me."

"Who can find you?" Rose asks when Ally shoots her another look for help, and Emma's eyes flash.

"Someone you're close with, I'm sure. They've done nothing but brag about their precious Rose up until lately."

Dave freezes, and there's a gun in Jade's hand in another instant.

"Who are you talking about?" Ally's frowning now, taking another step even as Emma takes another back. "You never met Rose in the game."

"Oh, and you made sure of that, didn't you?" Emma hisses, and Ally throws her hands out on either side of her.

"Well, what did you expect me to do? Just sit and watch while you destroy everything?"

"That was my _destiny!_ It was within my power to destroy--"

"That doesn't mean you _should!"_ Ally shouts over top of her, voice actually reaching somewhere close to Karkat's usual level. "Just because you can break our whole game and fuck it all up doesn't mean that you get to without consequences! Did you even see what you did?"

"Of course I did! I was there the whole time, and I loved every second of it. Of course, you had to come and put an end to all my fun--"

"I had to! You killed our friends!"

The room freezes, and something like a flicker of surprise colors Emma's cheeks again. "What did you say?"

Ally's chest is heaving like she wants to cry, but won't let herself. "Of course you don't remember, no one remembers but me." She puts her hands on her hips, steeling herself. "You were going nuts, none of us could get close to you. You killed Fran and Luke's dream selves, and your _own,_ you idiot, and we didn't know how to make you stop! So I got Luke to change the doom so you couldn't keep using it, and I--" She looks up, green eyes wet. "I had to, Emma. We had no other choice."

Dave's eyes are so wide behind his shades it's unreal. He thanks all the gods that he's wearing them, because holy shit, Ally was just one fucking surprise after another. She killed another player? Like, it sounded justified, or whatever, but to still want to help someone after they killed her other friends?

Emma's silent, face flying through anger and surprise and betrayal before settling on a cold glare. "I understand that I was uncontrollable in the last session. But again, that was when they wouldn't stop whispering to me. I never let them in, thank god, but they can find me, they'll always find me, which is why I have to stay here--"

"Emma, look, I have no idea who you're talking about." Ally interrupts, and Dave raises his eyebrows in Jade's direction. Ally doesn't know about the creepy pasta monsters? "But this is why you need to come with me! Just wake up, and we can get you help from whatever, or whoever, and we can make sure none of that happens again!"

"I doubt you can save me from them." Emma almost sobs, eyes wild. "They're everywhere!"

"Who?!" Ally shrieks, obviously fed up, and Emma shudders as she whispers it.

"The horrorterrors."

Even as she says it, the room darkens, and Ally just looks even more confused. "Who?"

"Vast beings from the outermost depths of space." Rose fills in, taking a step forward and holding Emma's gaze evenly when she looks at her. "Eldritch gods, some call them. Tanglebuddies, to others. Spaghetti monsters, to Dave. But yes, Emma, we are familiar with them. And we can keep them from getting to you. I promise."

Emma looks like she wants to believe them for a second, and for that second, Dave thinks that for once, things are going to be easy. Then she's wrapping her arms around herself and shaking her head, and the house begins rumbling around them as it turns pinker.

"No, no, no no nononononono--"

"Emma, don't!" Ally shouts over the ominous rumbling, somehow keeping her footing even as Dave stumbles about. "We can help!"

"You need to leave!" Emma shrieks, tears now spilling from her eyes. Her eyes glow purple as she shouts, "You put me here and I need to stay here because otherwise I'll hurt everyone again! You need to leave!"

The rumbling increases, and Dave thinks the house might actually collapse around them. Rose pulls tight on the rope, dragging everyone closer to her. Ally resists the most, still holding out a hand to Emma.

"Emma, please." She whispers, and Emma stares at her for a moment before shouting.

**"LEAVE!"**

The shout echoes through Dave's brain, and with that, Rose finally yanks Ally to her, grabbing them all and stating, "We're leaving now."

Ally shouts something incomprehensible, and there's a loud whooshing as the world contorts and shrinks around them. They're flying wildly through the darkness for a moment before they land hard on the ground, and Dave stumbles back and lands on his butt back in the house in the real world. With a jolt, he realizes it's not early in the afternoon anymore.

Back after curfew. Momlonde's gonna be pissed.

With a second jolt, Dave realizes he's crying.

Startled, he looks around, and he sees that Rose and Jade sitting on the floor next to him have tears in their eyes as well. Thinking there's something weird about that, because no way did they land hard enough to cry, he looks over to Ally and sees that in the few seconds they've been back to the real world, she's now hunched over Emma, shoulders shaking.

Oh. So that's where the tears are coming from.

Feeling awkward as hell, Dave wipes the tears quickly away, ignoring how Jade's sniffing next to him. She opens her mouth to say something, and then squeals, jumping back in sparks of green as Gamzee appears in front of them, limbs settling into joints as he lunges forward and pulls Ally off of Emma's body.

"Sister, you got to get your chill on." Gamzee pleads with a hitch in his voice, and Dave realizes that Gamzee must be crying, too. Holy shit. This is so nuts.

"I just want to help her and she won't let me!" Ally wails angrily, wiping away tears and snot with her god tier shirt, which quickly makes the moisture dissipate. "Why won't she let me help her?"

"Ally?" Rose asks calmly, and Ally groans loudly before responding. Gamzee takes his hands off her shoulders like he's been burned, looking down at his hands in disbelief.

"What?"

"We seem to have company."

"Oh fuck." Dave hisses, thinking about the horrorterrors, and jumps up, weird sadness forgotten as a sword flashes into his hand. As he turns around, he's instead greeted by weird shadowy looking figures in the back of the room, growing more solid by the minute.

"The hell are those?" Dave asks, and Ally finally looks up.

"Oh, shit, those are her weird things. The ghosty guys." She stands up straighter, sticking a hand out as she takes a shaky breath. In one second, her expression steels itself back to something more normal, and Dave feels a weird change in air pressure. "Don't worry, I got this."

Another warm feeling flashes through the air, and Dave smells something like a campfire before there's several pink flashes, and he sees five different Allys appear in front of him.

"Are those your copies?" Jade asks breathlessly, tears dried on her face, and Ally nods.

"Yeah. Alternate versions of myself, from different timelines, I guess. They'll take care of the ghosts."

Even as she said it, the copies all stiffen, odd green lights passing through them. As one, they turn around, a weird, sort of filmed over glow coming from their eyes.

"Uh, not to question your abilities or whatever," Dave starts, gripping his sword tighter, "But are they supposed to do that?"

"Shit." Ally hisses, and Dave nods.

"Guess not. Great. So do we have to fight them, too?"

"She must be able to manipulate them like she can manipulate the ghost things." Ally's voice has an edge to it now. "Shit, shit, we can't take all of them, we gotta go." Ally spins around and heads back to Emma, whipping off her blankets.

"We're running?" Jade asks, confused, actually taking her eyes off the enemy while Rose begins gathering light in her palms.

"I don't know if you noticed, Jade, but there's now nine of them and only five of us." Ally shouts back over her shoulder, ripping out Emma's IV unceremoniously. "And while I get that you're all great fighters, they're all me, which means they're _amazing._ So, yes, we're running, because we need back up." With that, she lifts Emma over her shoulder like the girl weighs no more than a sack of flour, and turns around. "Now."

Dave runs first, heading for the back door, which is closest. Annoyed, Jade follows behind, and Ally and Gamzee follow while Rose sends a blast of light to distract them momentarily.

"Jade, we have to jump! Straight to Seattle!" Ally calls over the blast, and Jade looks at her in worry as she almost floats out the back door.

"I don't think I can jump that far! That's like 1700 miles, I think, that's a far jump--"

"We need to!" Ally insists as Rose states, "It would probably be in our best interest, really."

They gather in the back yard, everyone staring at Jade, who worries her lip between her teeth.

"But that's so far, all at once, with all of you--"

Rose sends up a shield just as the ghosts and copies group makes it out the door, and Dave sees a thrown knife bounce off the shield just in time.

"You can do this." Ally steps toward Jade, face serious. "I know you can." Gamzee lets loose a protective half growl, and even he looks surprised by the noise he just made.

"I can't hold this much longer," Rose informs them calmly, and Ally quickly whips out a hand to grab Jade by the back of the neck, pulling her down so their foreheads are resting against each other. Gamzee jolts weirdly again, and Dave shoots him a look.

"Touchin' her like that…" Gamzee growls, but Dave ignores him as Ally begins talking.

"Focus on John. He's back there by now, and I know you can feel him." Ally's voice is smooth, reassuring, and suddenly, Dave feels braver than he has all day. Jade's eyes are widening, calm smoothing out her features, and nods as Ally says, "I know you can do this. You're so, so powerful. I believe in you. Jump as close as you can."

Jade nods one more time, then holds out her hands, turning away from Ally. "Hands and feet inside the ride at all times!"

Dave doesn't even have time to berate her for that comment, because seriously, how cliche can you get? But he's swallowed up in green sparks a second later, his molecules being pulled along in that weird feeling that always comes with Jade's jumps. It's like the feeling of being miniscule yet infinite at the same time, like you're everything and nothing all at once. And then his feet are slamming against the gravel on the ground, and he looks up to see they're right next to where they parked the jeep.

"Holy shit," He breathes, and Jade looks delighted as she takes in her surroundings.

"Without Bec! I jumped all that way without him!" Jade spins in a circle, turning to look at the jeep with a grin. "That's amazing! I can't believe--"

A knife flies through the air and embeds itself in the jeep's door right next to her head, and everyone turns and curses all at once.

"They must have followed us." Rose frowns, and Jade whines, "But howww?"

"Doesn't matter, get in the jeep!" Ally squeals, and with a weird pink, shimmery burst, she and Emma disappear. Dave sprints to the passenger door, and by the time he's seated, there's another pink burst, and Ally, Emma and Gamzee get situated in the backseat.

"Pedal to the metal, Jade!" Rose shouts as she buckles herself in next to Ally's other side, and Jade guns it as soon as she turns it on. Another knife sticks its mark in Dave's door as the tires peel out, sending gravel flying. 

"Oh god, she must have brought them with us." Ally whines in the backseat, and Dave can feel the anxiety rolling off of her in waves. "I just wanted to help and I made everything worse and brought you along and now she's attacking all of us and it's all my fault--"

"Firesis, please," Gamzee whines, and when Jade raises her eyebrows as she glances in the rearview mirror, Dave turns in his seat to look behind him.

Rose is leaning away from Ally with Emma's legs on her lap, looking serene as can be in the getaway car from hell. Ally's obviously freaking out, on the verge of tears again, holding the unconscious Emma tight to her, shaking even harder than could be explained by the bumpy path Jade's chosen. And next to her, Gamzee has his hands clenched tight to his chest, sitting cross-legged and looking at Ally like he's scared but also helpless.

"Please, sister, please, I can't no more." He's telling her, and Dave's ears catch on to that weird grating that means he's about to lose his shit again. "Our diamonds **ain't in this 'verse,** but I'm pitying you somethin' bad right now, and you're makin' it all kinds of easy--"

"Gam, I'm sorry, shit." Ally pulls one arm away from Emma to wipe at her face, voice warbling between syllables. "I don't mean it, I swear. I just can't, there's so much she's feeling, and everyone's kind of scared, and it's setting me off, and I can't, I can't, I can't--"

Like he's flipped a coin and decided or something, Gamzee reaches forward with determination, both hands grabbing Ally's face and turning it towards him. For a weird second, Dave thinks Gamzee's about to go in for a kiss, but instead, Gamzee presses his lips to her forehead, thumbs smoothing across her cheeks as he whispers, "Shhhh, Firesis, shhhh. Shoooosh."

Rose's eyebrows have shot all the way up her forehead, and Dave feels his doing the same. Now, he's not an expert on troll romancing by any means, but he's pretty sure that's a pale thing, that thing Gamzee's doing to Ally right now, with his thumbs rubbing slowly on her cheeks while she struggles to catch her breath. And if it is, that means that Gamzee has just cheated on Karkat and John at the same fucking time.

Dave feels like there's a weird ebb and flow of energy coming from the backseat, but the longer Gamzee whispers to Ally, the more it feels like it's pulling back, and Dave feels himself take a deep breath for what feels like the first time in minutes. His chest feels a bit lighter, muscles a little more relaxed, and with a pop in his ears, he feels himself settle back into his usual mood during a fight.

This day could honestly not get any weirder.

Ally quiets down after a minute of him mumbling and her breathing shakily, and Gamzee pulls back far enough to frown down at her. He runs his thumb across her lips, smoothing out her frown, and Dave wiggles uncomfortably in his seat. He definitely should not be staring like this, but he literally can't look away. It's like watching a trainwreck, you gotta see what happens next.

"I'm sorry." She whispers, closing her eyes as the tears finally stop. "I shouldn't have made you do that. It shouldn't have come to that."

"Shoosh. Ain't no good worrying now." Gamzee replies, pulling back but keeping his right hand on her cheek. His voice has smoothed out as well, back down to the baritone Dave usually associates with the troll. "Nothing we can do about it now."

She nods quietly, leaning into the touch, and since Dave's already weirdly twisted in his seat watching the soap opera in the back anyways, he glances out the rear window.

"They're still following us. I can only see two of them, though. But I'm sure the knife-happy one isn't far behind."

Jade whips around another corner, and Dave can see the laboratory come into view. They fishtail into the parking area in the front, and Rose practically dives out of the backseat as soon as the car comes to a stop. Dave can't blame her, and he quickly follows suit, sprinting up to the front steps before turning around.

Like he said, only two of the copies come around the corner, and they slow, walking towards the lab with measured steps. Like they're waiting for something. They're both in clothes as pink as Ally's, but slightly different outfits, and their hair is the same color as their shirts. Actually, all of them is the same color. Skin and everything. Weeeeiiiird.

"Bard and another heir. Shit. Didn't know there'd be so many godtiers." Ally breathes, as if that makes any sense at all. "Fine. Here, this should help." She reaches out a hand like she did before, shifting Emma back onto her shoulder.

Rose's eyes widen, "Ally, wait a moment--"

Ally doesn't wait a moment. About twenty yards away, five more pink Ally's pop into existence, and just like before, a weird green light shines around them before they turn around with that same eerie, possessed look.

"God _dammit!"_ Ally stamps her foot. "How is she jacking my clones even through the void wards!"

"Great, four more. That's what, thirteen, now? Our lucky number." Dave rambles, raising his sword into a ready stance. 

"Shit, okay." Ally huffs. "Okay, I gotta go drop her off inside, then I'll be back out to help fight them."

Jade whips around to look at her. "What?"

Ally's already up the stairs and opening the door. "Don't die! I'll be right back!" She calls over her shoulder before the door slams shut, and Rose rolls her eyes as she gathers up light in her hands. Right on cue, the rest of the ghost things and copies come around the corner, a few of them flying.

"Fun. Clone wars. I love Star Wars." Dave throws out, and Jade loads a rifle next to him, smirking.

"This'll be good target practice, at least!"

"Aim for the chest or head, I assume. That will be their weak point." Rose shrugs, and Gamzee takes a step forward, coming to a standstill next to Jade.

"Let's get this motherfuckin' party started."

Dave thinks for the second time that day that whenever Gamzee says it's a party, it most definitely is not.

\--- 

Pretty much as soon as Ally steps through the front doors of the lab, she's being stared at by somewhat familiar faces, but all she feels are the echo of memories. There's a few she knows, however, so she smiles in their direction as she waves.

"Hi! My name's Ally, I also went by the hero name Alke a while ago. You don't know me, but we're gonna be best friends."

The room is silent, and then a jade troll steps forward-- _Kanaya! Kanaya's here!_ \--eyes narrowing.

"Why is there a body over your shoulder?"

"Oh! Right!" There's so many people in here. _Too many_ , as more keep appearing through that doorway. Ohhhh man. "Okay, I need to go put her somewhere, and the rest of us need to go outside and fight because I accidentally brought like fifteen bad guys here."

She feels a few flares of surprise, some of fear, one of pure annoyance, and one like this is just a minor thing that needs to be dealt with before they can get back to whatever they wanted to do. One flare of anger burns brightly, and she turns to look.

"You _what?"_ Someone shrieks--oh, there's Karkat! Next to Alec, as usual. Just like they should be. Luke glowers from behind them, and John's eyes widen comically.

"It was an accident!" Ally protests, and a few more people equip strife specibi and begin moving around her. Then she spots another familiar face from this lifetime, and relaxes a bit...And also remembers some guidelines.

"Oh! One more thing." Ally waves to get everyone's attention again, and they all look at her. "If anyone has been susceptible to mind control in the past--hey, Feferi, good to see you again!--then you should stay inside. Because the bad guys out there can manipulate emotions, and it's based on the same principles, I think."

Feferi comes over to her, and before she can say anything, Ally shifts and dumps Emma's body into her arms. "Look at this, one Witch of Life taking care of another. At least, I think she's still one. Paradox space is weird sometimes. Whatever. Can you get her back to the medical wing? If she wakes up, sedate her. You won't want her to wake up until I'm there, probably."

Feferi looks confused, but she nods, and Ally watches as Eridan follows her, along with a few other kids who've looked nervous since she mentioned mind control. Taking a deep breath, she started taking a few steps backwards towards the door, still talking.

"Okay, so the rest of you! Number one, all the bad guys just happen to look like me, so don't actually hit me. I'm on your side!"

"Still not buying it," Karkat grumbles, and Ally gestures to where Feferi walked away.

"I literally just trusted you guys with my best friend's passed out body. Happy?" Karkat doesn't say anything else, so Ally takes that as a cue to continue. "The way to tell them apart from me is that they're pretty monochromatic and have creepy green eyes currently. The only way to poof them out of existence is a stab through the chest, right where the heart is." Ally pokes her sternum. "Sword, chainsaw, knife, whatever. And you're just poofing them away. They're not actually real people, so don't worry about the whole internal murder debate." She takes another deep breath. "Number two!"

"Do you ever shut up?" A tall man, who kind of looks like both Dave and Rose with pointier shades, crosses his arms, a sword hanging from one hand. Ally can feel a weird shift in energy as they make eye contact, and she has to steady herself before answering. Strange, almost like her bright wave of emotion is being amplified by his.

"I do! Just not yet." She turns back to look at John, who may not be more stable but is at least friendly and familiar. Easier to deal with, definitely. "Like I said before, they can manipulate emotions. Maybe not very strongly, but they can. The easiest way to prevent that is to think about your goals during the fight and kind of turn it into a mantra you repeat in your head. If you start to waver in the least bit in that mantra, you'll know they're trying, and if you get worried or are waaay off your original mantra, think loud and clear, 'Ally, I need your help,' and I'll zoom over and get rid of that! Are we clear?"

"Let's fucking go already!" Karkat screams, and with a grin, Ally turns and throws the doors open behind her. It looks like a couple of the heir clones have made a few clones of their own, and Ally quickly counts off maybe twenty five potential bad guys.

"Perfect." Somebody grunts behind her, and she turns to wink at Luke.

"Don't pretend you don't like the thought of actually getting to kill me."

He rolls his eyes, and then with a deep breath, Ally turns and flies out the door, pulling her staff into her hand with no more than a thought. It's been a long time since she fought like this.

\---

It's chaos, honestly. But Jade hasn't had this much fun fighting in a long time.

The clones soon started running at them three at a time after multiplying some more, so it was too close range for her gun to really do any good. Still, she's got a pistol right at the front of her sylladex, just in case the situation calls for it! But for now, she's throwing punches in literally THE best round of fisticuffs she's had in ages.

She fought John a couple times to stay sharp, and tried to wrestle Dave, but this wasn't like fighting either of them. Ally's clones were smaller, for one, and liked to favor pulling pointy objects pretty much out of nowhere. The one she was fighting was especially fond of her tiny sword that honestly looked like it should have been left in the fencing ring. She was lightning fast with the thing, too, so if Jade let her get too far away or go without a punch for too long, she was liable to get a poke in the leg before she could zap away.

And the clones could zap away, too! It was different than the way Jade could, different even than John's or Rose's, and that was a good thing. Because even if they disappeared in a pink shimmer, Jade could follow where they were going. They left a sort of imprint as they moved--a beat, if you will--and Jade could track it and land her next punch as soon as they solidified again. 

Suddenly, the lab doors opened behind her, and Ally came running out with pretty much everyone else behind her. Thank god! Not that Jade didn't think they could handle it, but fighting three people at once was bound to wear her out soon!

With a well timed roundhouse kick, Jade sent the Ally clone to the ground, and in the next second, Gamzee had gotten ahold of her sword and drove it down into the clone's chest. There was a fizzle, and the smell of a burnt out candle, and then the clone literally poofed away in a cloud of pink dust.

"Nice!" Jade offered a high five, but Gamzee was already turning away, eyes wide like he was looking for something. Jade shrugged, unbothered, and turned to look at the rest of the clones.

Fueled on by adrenaline and sheer fun, Jade held her hands out on either side as a ghosty thing rushed at her. "Bring it on!"

\---

Dave almost groaned in relief when people ran out of the laboratory doors, bringing with them like a hundred different fraymotif options. Ally, in particular, had made several more appear, and Dave was more than eager to see what kind of boost he and the others could get from them.

[Temporal Kerosene]

[Star Crossed Lovers]

[Rage and Grace]

[Head Over Heels]

[Internal Fissure]

[Beat Of My Heart]

activate fraymotif(s)? y/n

"Yes! All of the above!" Dave shouts, gripping his sword tighter. An old Hilary Duff song starts playing in his ears, and he lets loose a cackle as he dives into the fray.

\---

In hindsight, John was totally not prepared to fight someone who could manipulate emotions.

With Casey in hand, he had flown out with the rest of them, throwing himself into the nearest scramble with clones. He separated one from the group attacking Jade, rolling over with them on the ground until they were a good ten feet away. The clone scrambled up, accessing a sword specibi, and as it locked eyes with John, it smirked.

_I will not lose._

John focused hard on that phrase and dove in, parrying blow after blow of the sword with his hammer and sending a hit of his own when he could. Unfortunately, this version of Ally seemed built as strong as he was, and where the hammer hits should at least slow her down, it seemed like it was doing nothing. She was also really quick, and it took everything he had to keep up.

_I will not lose._

I think. 

How was this not hurting her?! He had accidentally shattered someone's leg before when he had forgot to keep his strength in check! These weren't even real people, they were just copies, illusions, so it should be doing more damage!

_I don't think I'll lose._

_But I wouldn't be surprised if you did!!_

EB: where did that come from?!

John wobbled a bit on his feet, off balance as the wind surged around him, through him. The clone smirked at him again, sending a huge swing of her two-handed broadsword at him and knocking him off his feet. It was another few seconds before he realized her eyes were glowing more brightly than before.

_I will not win._

No, that wasn't right. I will not lose. _I can't lose, I can't--_

TS: Oh, I'm sure you will!!!

EB: i'll get him, don't worry!

It was like the world was swirling around him and he couldn't get his bearings. He had never lost his sense of direction in his own tornadoes before, so why was he now? Wait, when did he start a tornado?

Why was it headed at Karkat?

TS: Haha, gotcha!

-

The only warning Karkat really had was that Gamzee, who had been fighting beside him previously, suddenly froze, spinning to look behind them. Karkat kicked the clone they were fighting a few feet away and then turned to look, wondering what the big goon was looking at now.

John, twenty yards away, was struggling to stand back up, a small tornado beginning to grow around him. The clone next to him was absolutely glowing pink, a devious smile on their face.

That definitely could not be good.

Gamzee bellowed, "Ally!" And then got smacked by some sort of club from the clone they had been fighting, and he was distracted again. Across the way, Karkat saw Ally's head snap up, and resisted the urge to growl. Why was he talking to her during a fight! They were honestly going to have SUCH a talk about boundaries. John, too. Jesus, from the way he'd been looking at her--

HELP HIM  echoed through Karkat's mind, loud enough to make him wince. He saw Ally's gaze flash from Gamzee to John, and then her eyes widened, and he could see her mouth 'shit' from here. 

Again, not a good sign.

Ally dove away from the next attack the clone she was fighting sent her way, and with a quick kick off, began flying straight at John, arms outstretched and face panicky. Oh, no she didn't--

The wind whistled through his hair before it swept him off his feet, and he was turned around once, twice, upside down, three, four times before he was slammed back into the ground and the tornado disappeared. Dazed, Karkat lifted his head in time to see Ally colliding with John, knocking them both into the air and back a few feet. He heard John shout something, and then he began glowing blue just as Ally began glowing pink, both of them still clinging to each other.

Glowing blue meant teleporting, and he wasn't feeling well enough to do that just yet, and that was Not Okay. Karkat pushed up off the ground, but then a huge gust rocketed him back through the air as John teleported away, taking Ally with him.

Karkat wheezed for breath on his back on the ground, and not for the first time, wondered how on earth he had ended up in the most defective moirallegiance known to man and troll kind. He doesn't think it can get any weirder.

-

John doesn't know what's going on. He's got the breeze running through him like a tornado, chasing down what might be--don't say his name, don't say it--and he can't catch his breath, and then suddenly Ally's smacking into him, pulling him into the air with her arms wrapped tight around him.

Instead of suffocating him like he thinks it should, it's comforting, but he still can't, he needs to go, he has to go--

"Ally, I--"

"Do what you need to, I'm here." Her voice is warm and reassuring, a mild breeze around his mind, and without waiting another second, John _releases._

His teleporting had always been between one second and the next, no time in between to really think or anything. But this time is different. This time, he feels it as his muscles relax and soften out, stretching and twisting until he's light as air and nothing's holding him down. There's a steady pulse in the air next to him, and he curls around the familiarity of it, bringing it with him as he flies into the air and uncurls all of the anxiety that was previously making him feel like he couldn't breathe.

Ha! An Heir of Breath that couldn't breathe. Can you imagine?

Ridiculous, isn't it?

Absolutely!

The voice of the beat is wind chimes, smooth notes as he whistles around, cascading in waves. 

_Can't believe it got that bad._

That sounded almost accusatory, but John has no mind for accusations right now. Because right now, he is the wind, and that is all that has ever mattered to him.

EB: that's the spirit!

_How?_

_Lots of stuff._

EB: lots of BAD stuff :P

_Yeah, lots of bad stuff._

_That's okay. I'm here now, let it go. Just_ _breathe._

That's almost funny to him. _Can do!_

As he stretches in the sky, he kind of comes back to his senses, and when he flips over one more time, he can see the big fight still going on down below. He sees Dave about to get jumped from behind, and he sends a gust curling around the ghosty thing, sending it flying away to Bro, who currently has no one to attack. 

Vriska and Terezi are toying with their clone, their smiles dropping as it multiplies, Karkat and Gamzee are double teaming one, Jade's kicking ass, and John--

John is up in the air, not helping at all.

Immediately, he sinks a few feet lower, and the wind chimes are back again, beating steadily beside--inside?--him.

_No, no, you're fine. You can take a breather whenever you need to._

_I need to go help!_

_No, you need to heal._

Ignoring them, John gathers up himself and shoots down again, and just as his feet rematerialize, he hits the ground solidly, and remembers why he needed to go in the first place. Ally's still holding on to him, and with a choking sob, John's holding onto her back, and they sink to the ground in a heap of limbs overlapping.

"John, you can't just keep going. You know this is how it happened last time, you can't keep doing that."

"I know, I know." He mumbles into her hair, feeling that familiar ache of problems rising up. "It's so hard…"

"That's okay! It's going to be hard. Really hard at some points, but it'll be okay. You have all your friends here, and you have Karkat, too! And Gamzee, now." Ally laughs a little, and the sound reminds him of the wind chimes he heard earlier. "And me, I guess. You always got me."

Speaking of Karkat, he'd probably blow a gasket right now, if John were to say what he was really thinking.

EB: i don't think you're supposed to just keep adding people to the same quadrant…

_But she was the only one who got it to go away so fast!_

EB: that's not a good reason!

_I'm sure Gamzee would be fine._

EB: but would karkat?

John pauses, holds Ally tighter like a child who doesn't want to give up its favorite toy. Ally shifts against him, holding him right back, and another warm breeze rolls over his shoulders. He feels positive about it now, like he always knew it'd be like this.

EB: i mean, don't get me wrong, two heirs working together is a super powerful combo. but i don't think this is what i mean.

EB: actually, she makes it kind of warm.

Jesus. Rose was going to have one hell of a day with all the psychoanalysis she could perform from just the past six hours alone.

EB: if you're sure!

_I am._

"Thanks Ally." John whispers, and then pulls away, sitting back on his heels. Ally's glowing pink beneath him, but as they separate from their tight hold on each other, it dims a bit, and she asks, "Are you alright?"

"Not quite."

She smiles like she knew the answer. "Go get Karkat, get inside, and pile up, with your actual moirail. You've got some heavy shit to work out."

"Right back at you." John shoots back before he can stop himself, but he doesn't feel bad about the way that Ally's eyes widen. He can't push away that feeling in the back of his mind, the nagging that it wasn't just _his_ sadness he was releasing from the breeze. He wasn't the only one with a deep seated agony beneath his skin.

Ally smirks at him, pushing his shoulder. "Karkat actually will blow a gasket if I start talking about that with you. Go pile him, you goof."

"You're welcome to join."

Once again, John's mouth was working without his permission.

EB: smooth, dude.

This time Ally laughs, the wind chimes rolling over John's spine like a warm blanket, and he's able to stand and hold out a hand for Ally as she finishes.

"Karkat is going to implode." She tells John, and John shrugs.

"Not if he's got three of us!"

She swats at his shoulder one more time, and then kicks off, flying over to where Dave and Bro are in a thicket of ghosty things. John watches her go, and then turns to face Karkat, feeling inspired. Yeah, they really needed to have a good pile talk soon.

\---

Bro has never had to worry about his emotions during a fight, not since Georgia--

_No, don't think about that!_

Jesus, what was it about fighting four emotionally manipulative broads? _Probably that, exactly._

He and Dave were back to back taking on four of them while Kanaya and Rose were chopping some up just off to the left. The ghosty things were a little bit trickier, you had to hit them just right in the chest, but the clones were easy. As long as you got them anywhere in the chest, they'd poof, and he was on to the next one. There certainly wasn't a shortage of them, that's for sure. 

"Heads up!" Someone shouted, and Bro spun just in time to see the new girl--Ally or Alke or whatever--come flying out of the sky and drop kick the clone that had been sneaking up on Dave. Lightning quick, her staff is in her hand, and with a twist of her wrist, a spike pops out of the end and stabs through the clone's chest.

"I thought John said you never had any casualties?" Dave shouts between one swing of the sword and the next, and Bro resists the urge to roll his eyes. _Don't talk during a fight, kid. How many times do I gotta tell ya?_

"Gotta be prepared for everything!" Ally tosses back, the staff disappearing and squares up to fist fight the ghosty thing in front of her.

Fist fight. She's fist fighting a ghost with a mace. 

"Noted. Remind me to never get on your bad side." Dave replies, and this time, Bro does roll his eyes.

Dave gets separated after that, something about helping Jade or whatever, and Bro and Ally are left fighting the three clones over here. Ally's just as fast with her fists as she is with the staff and the sword, and Bro has a hard time keeping track of her in his peripheral vision. Either she learned how to time stop like Dave, or she was flashstepping.

That was impressive as hell.

"Watch it--" Ally hisses, and as Bro ducks, she vaults over his back to kick at the clone swiping at him, pulling out her staff with a swing of her hand and bringing it down on the arm of the clone, effectively knocking the sword out of harm's way.

"Where the _hell_ did you learn how to fight?" Bro can't help but ask, voice halting as he swipes low on the clone next to him. Usually, using your fighting partner as a vaulting point wasn't a thing. 

Ally swipes high without hesitation, knocking the clone to the ground and leaving it wide open for Bro to stab. "Didn't have much else to do growing up, so I practiced with specibi."

"Which ones?" Bro clarifies, eyeing up the remaining clone and ghosty thing in front of them.

"All of them, I think." Ally answers. "I mean, not puppets, obviously, that's just ridiculous."

Bro glances at her, and she smirks, and in the next half second she's flashing away, launching herself at the ghosty thing. Bro stands still for a moment--was that a wink? What the hell was wrong with his lungs? Was the clone messing with him?--and then he throws up his own sword to block the attack from the clone, who seems to be using some sort of large club.

A few more well timed swipes, Ally launching off his leg once, him actually throwing her around by the shoulder to stab the last clone, and he takes a breath, regaining his composure. Holy shit, fighting with her was easy as hell. Not only could she match his speed, her creativity kept the clones on their toes--

"Ambrose!"

Ally's shriek makes him jolt, protective guardian senses kicking in, and then she's throwing herself at him, knocking him out of the way just as a weird blast of green light passes them by, and then there's a sharp, stinging sensation in his side. He looks up in time to see another clone pulling back from a stab, but not quickly enough, and Bro uses that opening to shove his own sword into their chest, twisting as they poof away. He's got one arm tightly around Ally, who's pressed against him and breathing hard. After a second of double checking that nothing else was coming to attack them, he looks down at her, squeezing her shoulder quickly.

"You good, kid?"

"Could ask you the same." She snaps back, then groans and steps away from him. "Shit, that's a lot of blood on your shirt."

"Could say the same to you." He grunts, eyes widening, then puts his sword away in the next second to grab her under the shoulders as she wobbles. "The hell?"

"Clone stabbed us." She tells him, and he feels the stinging in his side once more. "Got me worse because I pushed you out of the way. I really fucking hope this isn't gonna be heroic enough to kill me." 

Kill her? Even as Bro questions it, he can see blood dripping down her torso, and he realizes the sword must have gone straight through her in order to slice at him.

"No, no. Not dying." Bro tells her, then glances around him. There's not a lot of clones left, so he think the rest of them can handle it as he scoops her up. It causes his side to burn, but he ignores it as he flashsteps into the building.

"Feferi." She grunts, holding on tightly. "She can heal. Go there." She leans her forehead to press against his neck, and instantly, he's hit with a mental picture of the tyrian-blooded troll who had come back with Dave from his trip to the fucking arctic circle. The feeling is surrounded by a warm wave of concern, fondness and wariness and determination all wrapped into a tight bundle as the memory of Feferi turns to smile at her, at the ready with a grin as _something rises up behind her--_

Without a word, Bro redirects, feeling a lump in his throat that has nothing to do with her pressing her forehead against him more urgently. Not saying he knew Ally, but she seemed like the type to keep fighting until it was over. So, if she wasn't even protesting that he was getting her out of here...He couldn't let this girl die. Strange new kid or not, she was still a kid, maybe one of theirs, and he had to save her.

"I'm 22, I'm not a kid."

"Mind reader?" He asks, miffed, and as they appear in the doorway, she lets out a shaky laugh.

"No. Your heart's super easy to read."

As if that makes more sense.

Feferi jolts out of her chair, startling Eridan and the others in the room. Rue's tending to the other new girl, the unconscious one, and the scratch kids are all hovering around over by Equius and Nepeta. As he looked at the people there, he realized he didn't actually know who Feferi was. He only had a mental image of her on the way over.

Ally glances nervously at him. _Thinking's easier than speaking._ The voice appears in his mind, soft and to the left, and blends so easily with his own thoughts that it takes a second to pick out the higher notes of her voice.

"What happened?" Rue gasps as she looks over, and Ally waves the arm that's not holding on around Bro's shoulders. Guess he'll have to ponder about that later.

"Nice to meet you, Rose's mom! We got stabbed!" Ally says brightly, and the color starts draining from her face as she forces a smile. 

"Idiot pushed me out of the way." Bro answers, then pushes his way over to an empty bed--no sheets, bummer for the lab--and lays her on it. "Sword went clean through her." He glances to Feferi, an eyebrow raised. "She said you can heal?"

"I--yes." Feferi swallows, coming over with a steely look in her eye. Bro settles on the other side of the bed, and Feferi hesitates before grabbing Ally's shirt and ripping it as easily as if it were paper. Tyrian strength is nothing to mess with. But with her shirt out of the way, Bro's eyes widen, and Rue gasps again, a hand to her mouth.

Eridan looks over Feferi's shoulder and faints.

The sword really did go straight through her, and looks like it made the cut bigger on the way back out. It starts just a couple inches above her right hip and makes its way to below the rib cage. He can see some of her intestines, and they're probably shredded as well, but it's kind of hard to get a good look with all the blood that's still pouring out of her. Her limbs have started to go deathly pale, the pallor closer to Dave than what's probably healthy for someone as tan as her, and she must not have a lot of time left.

"My eyes are--up here." She gasps, and when Bro looks up at her, she's smirking, even though he can see the fear in her eyes. Grimacing, he takes her hand in his, holding on tightly and looking down at her.

"She'll fix you up."

"Don't need you to hold my hand for that." She wheezes, then winces as Feferi puts a finger on the outside of the wound. Bro grips her hand tighter, and Ally squeezes back, now gasping for breath.

"I can help," Feferi whispers more to herself than anyone else, and then closes her eyes, setting both hands on the not-shredded part of Ally's stomach. Her hands began glowing a light, spring green, and Ally lets out a sound that's half hiss, half whine, and squeezes Bro's hand so hard he's actually kind of worried it might break.

Slowly, so slowly, the blood flow cuts off, and through the puddle on her midsection, Bro can see her skin knitting itself back together. Feferi takes a deep breath and frowns, and it goes quicker, the six inch cut finally closing and looking brand new. Bro's eyebrow lifts a centimeter. No scar, nothing. That is some voodoo shit right there.

Feferi huffs and opens her eyes, then widens them. "Why isn't she better?"

Ally's still shaking, cold sweat on her brow as she breathes heavily.

"Kid?" Bro asks, other hand on her shoulder in an instant. Through her shirt, he can feel her heartbeat going way too fast.

"What's wrong?" Feferi asks, panicking and looking around. "I did everything right! She should be healed!"

"It was a big incision." Bro's clone-- _Dirk, he has a name_ \--says, coming over with a towel. "Shock could be a factor, regardless of if it healed."

"Oh no!" Feferi gasps, hands flying to her mouth just as Bro feels Ally's pulse stop and her grip loosen. Her eyes squeeze shut, and then the last, rattling breath hisses out from her mouth.

"Ally!" Bro shouts, squeezing her shoulder. Ally's hand remains limp in his. There's no response, only silence. She's deathly still on the bed, and everyone in the room is staring wide-eyed at her. _No no no, she can't be dead!_ But even as he thinks it, he feels a weird lack of energy in the room, like that buzzing noise that you've tuned out has suddenly stopped. But how? She was healed, he got her here in time, she should have been okay--

There's a huge hacking gasp, and Ally sits bolt upright, gasping for breath as her eyes fly wildly around the room. Bro eases her back, hand holding tightly to hers now that it's gripping his again, and with his other hand on her shoulder, forces her to lay back down as she catches her breath.

"Haha, holy _shit,"_ She gasps, a breathless smile lighting up her face. "So apparently dying from shock isn't heroic or just. Holy shit. Oh my god hahaha."

"Is she okay?" Feferi whispers, still looking insanely creeped out that someone literally just rose from the dead and started laughing. 

"Shock. She's recovering," Dirk tells her, passing Ally the towel. Ally takes it as her laughs stop, still holding tightly to Bro's hand as she sits up. 

"Oh man, that was wild. Hooooo boy."

Bro reaches down, redirecting with his free hand where the towel was going. She's still kind of giggling, but hey, that means she's breathing. She squeezes his hand lightly, shooting him a smile when he leaves his hand on the towel for a moment longer than what was probably necessary.

"She's back here!" They hear someone shout from the hallway, and a couple seconds later, Dave, Jade, Rose, Kanaya, Terezi and Vriska round the corner, piling into the already crowded room. Bro can feel Dave's gaze immediately land on Bro holding Ally's hand, and he tries to tug it away, but she has it in a vice-like grip, not letting go even when he frowns at her.

"Ally!" Jade gasps, running up and looking at all the blood on her with wide eyes. "What happened?"

"Got stabbed, died for a second, came back." Ally grins at her, wiping idly at her stomach. "Totally crazy. How'd the fight go?"

"Great!" Jade grinned up at her, and began chattering about how she fought a ton of the clones with Dave using a fraymotif. Bro tenses, hating being near the center of attention, and just as he's about to bolt away, Ally tugs on his hand again, looking away from Jade. They make eye contact, and Ally frowns at him.

"No, you got hurt, too. You need to be healed--"

"No." He hisses, trying to tug his hand out of hers once more, but she holds on, glaring at him just as angrily. "None of that magic--"

"Fine, then!" Ally interrupts, smirking. "Kanaya's good with a needle, she could stitch you up easy--"

"No way in _hell--"_

"Then _Dave_ will!" Ally shouts, and everyone's watching the two of them, and Bro's about to freak out when a warm feeling settles on his shoulders, brushing away the chill that stuck there when Ally stopped breathing before. Ally's still looking at him earnestly, like she's looking inside of him and seeing how he works, and he can just picture her opening him up and playing with the gears.

"Dave will stitch you up, you trust him." Ally states more than asks, and Bro nods anyways, settling his mouth back into a frown. 

"Not here," He adds on quickly, still hating the way both Rue and Rose are raising their eyebrows at him.

"Fine, you big baby." Ally rolls her eyes, hopping down off the bed. "Someone else can use that, I'm good to go now!" She looks around, grinning when she spots Dave. Her shirt mends itself in the blink of an eye, the blood siappears, and the only remnants of her dying are on the blood staining her hands. "Wanna help me with your bro?"

Kanaya looks down at the floor. "What happened to Eridan?"

Dave looks like he can't tell if he wants to run or puke or start a fight. Bro always tried to school him on keeping his expressions in check, but Dave just felt so much more than him, always has. He never understood it, could never replicate--

The warm tingling drips down from his shoulders again, and he glances at Ally out of the corner of his eye to see a smirk still on her face as she watches him back.

"Uh, yeah. We can--" Dave gulps, pointing over his shoulder to the door. "There's an empty room just a couple away."

"Lead the way!" Ally tells him, and then pulls Bro along behind her. His mind blanks a bit--everyone's staring, everyone's watching--and then with a sigh, she flashsteps out of the room with him matching pace step for step, giving him a look when they settle back down to a normal pace inside the other room.

"You're such a dork, you know that?"

Bro stares at her, and he can feel Dave freaking out in front of him. He pulls on his hand again, and she finally lets go, turning to Dave.

"Right above his left hip. He'll need probably only a few stitches, but it's pretty deep."

"Right." Dave looks between the two of them, eyes rising above his shades, and then he points to Ally as he looks at Bro. "Do you two want--"

"Stitch me up." Bro orders, drowning out Dave's words, and Dave raises his hands as he reaches to grab a med kit. 

"Yeesh, fine, dude."

Bro turns to glance at Ally once more, but she's gone, the door closing slowly and silently in her wake. Honestly, if Dave had asked, Bro couldn't explain it. It wasn't often there was something he couldn't explain, and even less often that he'd admit to it, but as Dave began working on his side, Bro could feel the tiny nugget of something warm settling in his chest. It felt like a beginning, a second chance, and hope all in one. It was unlike anything he'd ever felt, wearing away at his years and years of sicksicksick and putting instead _differentwarmhappy--_

He had no idea what that could mean. But still, he can't forget the words Joanna told him just months before she passed away.

_"In addition to yours, there will be six more orphans doomed to be raised alone. Do try and find them, dear. They'll be of more help then you know."_

He pushes those thoughts away and tries not to think about how the only time two people got that close to him, they each ended up stabbed in the side. 

\---

Once everyone had been stitched up and showered, Rose reminded everyone that the moving to a new location would begin tomorrow morning. John was squirming under her gaze the entire time, and he knew Karkat could tell. But Ally was just a few people away, totally not looking like she was dead earlier, and John could not stop watching her.

After the initial heat of the battle had died down and while Kanaya was working on stitching people up along with the doctors, John and Karkat and Gamzee had all gathered in the tiny closet that Karkat turned into a makeshift pile and cuddled up. Gamzee was on the bottom of the pile, completely splayed out--or as much as you really could be in a closet--and John sat next to him, legs over his lap and kind of pressed against his side. Karkat was on top of both of them, fuming that neither of them would really talk.

"We can't have a pile where two idiots really need it and neither says anything!" Karkat's whisper-screaming, definitely aware that Jade and Dave are hanging out not that far away from the door to the closet. "Gamzee, you were fucking weird that whole fight, and John, what did we say about teleporting?!"

"To not do it?" John offered weakly, and he could see Gamzee smirking next to him.

"Exactly! So why did you?"

"Shhh, get your settle on, lil bro." Gamzee chides, patting Karkat's head, but he looks guilty as he says it. John frowns, but looks up to answer Karkat anyways. Which is kind of hard, seeing as Karkat's sitting on him.

"I didn't teleport necessarily." John starts, adjusting what feels like a book underneath him. "I just kind of...turned into the...wind?"

"What?" Karkat screeches, and Gamzee shooshes him again.

"I just floated! I had...um, bad feelings, and being windy kind of helped clear it out--"

"What do you mean bad feelings?"

"Tricksy motherfucker made an appearance." Gamzee half-growled, and John wiggled against him to get his arm out where he can pat Gamzee's knee or something. Gamzee closes his eyes at the touch, but continues, "Firesis' evil one brought it back out."

"She can do that?!" Karkat wheezes, eyes looking wildly from Gamzee to John, and both of them reach out to pap him. "Oh fucking fuck I knew she was bad news she's terrible she needs to go--"

"No!"

"NO."

Both John and Gamzee stop, looking at each other, and Karkat's frozen, watching them both with narrowed eyes. His scarlet colored eyes are almost glowing in the dim light, and John feels himself blush.

"Any particular reason why you two panless shitstains are defending her when she is so clearly a threat? Are you two in cahoots?"

"She ain't no threat, brother, it was her clones--"

"But if her clones can do it that means she can! What if she turns on us and decides to pull a fast one on 'trust everyone John' and he comes back--"

"Karkat, shoosh!" John frowns, reaching out and grabbing him by the shoulders. "She made him go away, too!"

Karkat's still glaring, but he's not trilling anymore, which is a good sign! "She what."

"She…" John swallows, and can feel Gamzee turning to look at him. "She made him go away? Uh, she kind of, turned into the wind with me, and helped clear him out. Like, soothed him away."

"Soothed?!" Karkat screeches, and suddenly there's a flurry of claws as both Gamzee and John try and restrain Karkat from running out right there and tracking her down. After a scuffle and once Gamzee has both his arms locked around Karkat's smaller body, he lies there, panting, glaring when Gamzee or John try to pap him.

"She shooshed you, John. Just say it. Just fucking tell me she did."

"Not if you're going to go fight her!" John argues back, still trying to find the right words to convince Karkat that this could be a good thing. "Besides, it technically wasn't shooshing, just helping. She did what she had to do! Isn't that a good thing that she was able to get rid of him so quickly? She helped!"

Karkat slowly begins stilling, and John's not sure if it's because he's getting madder or more calm, so he keeps talking.

"By getting me to kind of evaporate or whatever, she got him to go away in two minutes where before it would have taken so long. And then, after that, I was even able to help fight for a bit before I made you two leave with me. She helped! And I think she'll be able to help in the long run, too, with...him. She's strong enough with her heart stuff that it could really help. And I know you two would get along!" Karkat begins grumbling again, and John tries for a different angle.

"But I think we could help her, too."

Gamzee actually turns to look at him, eyes wide. Karkat shifts, but asks, "We could help her?"

"She…" John swallows, wondering if this crosses the line between platonic and pale, too. "When we were the wind, I could feel...sad? Like, her sadness, not mine. But still, it was super potent, it kind of felt a lot like mine, but different, too. And I think that if she can help with my thing, we should help her with hers, too."

"Firesis has a lot of swirlin' inside." Gamzee mumbles against Karkat's head. "She ain't no more the whimsy she used to be. She got a powerful dark inside her."

"What, did she pile you, too?" Karkat huffs, but John can tell he's slowly coming around to the idea. To John's amazement, Gamzee winces at Karkat's question. Thankfully, Karkat doesn't seem to notice, and Gamzee just shoots John a look that says _later._

"I got that feeling too, though." Karkat adds on. "Although I think mine's more from my dreams than actually out here. But she's lonely. And...fuck, this is so fucked up." Karkat groans and runs his hands down his face, this time not pulling away when John reaches out to pat his head. This was definitely the angle to go for. What did Eridan say that one time? Karkat 'Pap First Ask Questions Later' Vantas? Nailed it. "Fucking four. Because three wasn't fucked up enough, we'll now have four. Or something. Jesus."

"You'll see." Gamzee hums, rubbing his face against Karkat's head. "Firesis is a fuckin' riot. Perfect diamond."

"You know I haven't totally said yes yet." Karkat grumbles, and Gamzee just laughs, reaching around an arm to pull John closer as well.

"You will, lil bro, you will."

\--ardorDeviant [AD] opened a memo on board "relationship probs??" at 2:27 PM PT on 3-29-16--  
\--ardorDeviant [AD] added arsenicCatnip [AC] and grimAuxiliatrix [GA] to memo--  
AD: hellooooo ladies!  
AD: are either of you available to meet up with me to talk about something personal?  
AC: :33 < *ac stretches a bit from her most recent catnap and meows loudly at the newcomer!*  
AC: :33 < *ac thinks she smells familiar, but it is probably just because they are both heart players and will be best friends!*  
AD: oh shit i don't have a rp person  
AD: man i haven't rped in years  
AC: :33 < that is definitely something that can change!  
GA: I Am Unable To Step Away From My Work At The Moment But Perhaps I Can Help From Here  
AC: :33 < oh yes! tell us what's going on! equius won't let me out of bed at the moment 3:  
AC: :33 < *ac curls up on ad's lap to listen!*  
AD: haha yesss *ad totally pets ac*  
AD: i love cats i wish i could have had one  
AD: but yeah this is totally fine!  
AD: anyways it's kind of a relationship problem thing as you can see from the board and i figured that you two would probably be the best to talk to  
GA: Karkat Considers Himself Somewhat Of A Romantic Expert Perhaps You Should Add Him To The Memo  
AD: oh yeah no can do  
AD: he's kind of part of the problem  
AC: :33 < do you have a crush on him?? what quadrant?? *ac reaches for her shipping grid, eager to update*  
AD: uh perhaps? i'm not too sure at this point?  
GA: What Aren't You Sure About  
AD: whether the crush has to do with someone else's strong feelings that i'm just absorbing or if they're actually my own too?  
GA: That's A Problem For You?  
AD: yeah pretty often actually  
AD: people have a lot of strong feelings, you'd be surprised  
AD: i need advice because i think i may have just been inducted into a four way moirallegiance  
GA: What  
AC: :33 < WHAT  
AC: :33 < i mean  
AC: :33 < *ac sits up at attention! she really really wants to know how!!!!*  
AD: oh man i have no idea what happened  
AD: okay here's the sparknotes  
AD: gamzee and karkat broke up in the old universe because of something, idk what, and then gamzee hopped over to my session and we started being rails or w/e and we were for a long time and then the universe exploded  
AD: and THEN  
AD: apparently in this universe he's already in diamonds with john and karkat, but  
AD: okay you two need to swear to secrecy  
AD: like kanaya you can't tell rose because she'll probably tell john and then he'd be obligated to tell karkat right  
AD: that's how moirails work in this universe right/span>  
AC: :33 < purretty much, yeah!  
GA: Yes  
GA: Why Were They Different In Previous Iterations  
GA: That Is Not Normal Here As Well They Are Highly Unusual  
AD: welp it's gamzee so what do you expect  
AC: :33 < tell us the secret!  
AD: right sorry  
AD: don't tell anyone because this could be weird  
AD: anyways uh  
AD: because of the heightened emotions and everything, gamzee had to pap me on the way back to the lab?  
AC: :33 < *ac gasps in surprise*  
AD: *ad gasps as well because what the hell*  
GA: Yes I Also Gasped If That Is A Thing We Are Doing  
AD: and then i think i may have shooshed john during the fight?  
AC: :33 < omg!!  
AD: yeah that was my bad i wasn't thinking clearly at the moment  
GA: Oh Dear  
AD: but then like twenty minutes ago john comes up to me and says that karkat's cool with me joining up in the diamonds thing with all them? so i think they had a powwow or something and actually discussed pulling me in???  
AD: so i'm not sure what all they told him first off and second off what the hell???  
AC: :33 < *ac fur-iously makes room in the grid for this recent development!*  
GA: While This Is Incredibly Good Gossip And Could Possibly Make For A Very Intriguing Troll Soap Opera What Is It Exactly That You Needed Advice On  
AD: how do i be in a quadrant with three people????  
AD: like i am most definitely pale for gamzee like that's a for sure thing  
AD: and i guess for john too since i shooshed him earlier??  
AD: but i kind of get the feeling that karkat hates me so i don't think being diamonds with him is a good idea  
GA: I Would Suggest Talking It Out With Him  
GA: Maybe Arrange A Time Where We Can All Sit Down And Discuss Your Feelings And What It Means Moving Forward  
GA: You All Not We All  
GA: And Then Maybe A Second Time Where Just You And Karkat Can Sit And Talk  
AC: :33 < is it rude to ask if i can watch?  
AC: :33 < i mean moderate???  
GA: Probably Yes  
AC: :33 < shoot  
AC: :33 < *ac paws angrily*  
AD: *ad pets nep because she's too cute to be mad*  
AC: :33 < *ac purrs, suddenly happier!*  
AD: fuck yeah  
AD: but anyways thanks for that guys this has been wild. like probably the wildest day of my life so far  
AD: i guess i have to talk to one of the three of them now when i need to get stuff off my chest?  
AD: this is so weird  
GA: Yes That Is What You Will Do  
GA: Where Will This Meeting Be Taking Place  
GA: Will You Require Assistance  
AD: i don't think so?  
AD: like, karkat doesn't like me but i don't think he'd attack me if john and gamzee will be there  
AD: and it'll probably be in john's room, why?  
GA: No Reason  
GA: Any Guesses As To When  
AD: in a few minutes probably  
GA: I Need To Go  
GA: Always Happy To Help  
AD: yeah thanks guys!!  
AD: hey kanaya  
GA: Yes  
AD: would you be able to explain the mad dash down the hallway that looked suspiciously like a glowing troll  
GA: Most Definitely Not Goodbye

\--- 

To Dave's complete surprise, the move goes off without a hitch. Between Jade and John, everyone gets to the apartment building safely, and the mad dash to claim rooms begins. Kanaya tries to keep everyone on one floor, but one floor becomes three, and Equius manages to pull Nepeta off to the farthest corner away from everyone, to her dismay. Dave's in the middle floor sharing a room with Davesprite, and Ally's across the hall with Jade. Rose and Kanaya are a couple doors down, along with John, Karkat and Gamzee, and the rest of Ally's crew. The scratch kids are on that floor as well, and everyone else isn't too far.

Dave has a feeling the distance isn't going to last.

Often times, he'd walk out in the morning to see Davesprite and Ally sitting on the couch, chatting while Davesprite played something on the DS he brought with him. The two had taken a quick liking to each other, apparently because Davesprite seemed to be more down with just rolling with the fact that Ally knew and was bffsies with both of them in a past life.

"Not Davesprite, so much." Ally confessed the first night there, eating dinner while sitting on Dave's counter. Jade was floating next to her, trying to mix a salad using only her powers. Dave sat in the stool not too far away from her, watching behind his shades and still trying to figure out if he should be cool with her or not.

"I mean, he's great! But I only saw him for a few minutes in the alpha timeline, and maybe less than that in any of the others." Ally continued. "In one timeline, Dave and I hung out for like, six years, but in the main one, we were just together for about thirty minutes of action."

"So, besties." Jade says again, and Ally rolls her eyes, but smiles.

"Yeah, sure, besties."

Then Alec came in to let them know there was a pool on the roof, and there weren't too many more serious conversations after that except for a couple nights later on the balcony.

Dave kept weird hours because he could always catch up later, but when he went out on the roof late one night to do who knows what, Ally was already up there, sitting on the ledge and staring out over the city.

"Dude, it's like, 2 am, why are you awake?" Dave called over, slowly walking around the pool. Ally startled, floating a bit upwards and then relaxing down when she saw it was him.

"Couldn't sleep." She shrugged, smiling at him and patting the stone next to her. He sat down a couple feet away, his cape ruffling genty in the wind next to her hood. "You?"

"Sleep is for the weak." He replied easily, and she snorted, looking back out once more. There was exactly 42 seconds of silence before Dave spoke again, unable to not be curious.

"What did you mean by thirty minutes of action?"

Ally sighed like she knew this question was coming, but kept on smiling. "We were in charge of scratching things, at the end. But, as usual, things go sideways." She scratched the side of her head. "Alec knows more, and he'll probably explain later, but I don't remember too much other than things that directly involved us interacting. Just that it was you and me, fighting till everything shattered around us."

There was a pause, then she snorted. "Jegus, that sounded dramatic."

Dave snorted too, nodding. "Yeah, a bit. And then the six years…?"

Ally rolled one shoulder. "I remember even less about that one, considering it wasn't an alpha timeline. Just that something went wrong during a scratch, I think, and instead of the doomed timeline disappearing right away, we were stuck on Ivan's planet for six years with no one else alive. We tried to find them for the first year, and then gave up after that, because they had all gone through the scratch without us. So we just decided to make the best of things until the end came, which wasn't for another five years."

"Yikes." Dave grimaces, kicking his feet idly. "That doesn't sound fun."

"It was bad, at first." Ally shrugged. "Then after that, we just kinda came to terms with it. Ivan's planet was pretty cool. There were a lot of trees and some monkey looking things and we just kind of hung out and figured out how to grow apple trees."

Dave froze, slowly turning to look at her. Maybe she sensed his surprise, maybe she knew the gravity of the situation, who knows. But she turned to look at him, lifting one eyebrow. "What?"

"Apple trees?"

"Um, yes?" She looks at him incredulously. "What else would we do?"

Dave threw his hands in the air, almost dislodging himself from the roof ledge. "That's it, I'm convinced. We were best friends. I admit it."

Ally lets out a loud laugh, "Man, if I knew that was all I would have had to tell you, I would have started off with that!"

Dave smirks right back, scooting a couple inches closer. "Well, from now on, you have my full attention on anything and everything that has to do with that timeline." Ally giggled once more, then launched into a story of one of the few memories she had from then. 

And even though Dave still got that feeling that she was holding back, that there was something about that timeline she wouldn't tell him, he didn't care. She was happy, and he was happy, and they were laughing, and for a second, he forgot the world was ending in like three weeks.

Putting up fronts or not, she was chill. He could be chill around her. And maybe she'd learn that she could be chill around him, too. God, wouldn't that be a relief? For him it would be, at least. 

Near the end of the story, he got the prickling sensation on the back of his neck that he liked to attribute to his 'bro senses', and frowned, resisting the urge to look behind him. Why the hell was he on the roof this late? It was close to four now.

Ally frowned at nearly the same time he did, and she actually turned around, eyes scanning the roof. "What's Bro doing up late?"

"Who knows." Dave sighed, turning around as well. He couldn't see him, but that didn't mean he wasn't waiting to fling one of the poolside chairs at his face. "I'm heading in before he can launch an attack with water muppets or something."

Ally laughed, but stayed seated, and Dave threw a peace sign over his shoulder as he walked away. Two steps into the doorway that led to the stairs, he heard Ally say something, and with a glance over his shoulder, he groaned silently. 

Bro was sitting rigidly next to Ally, who was now kicking her feet and talking up a storm next to him. Dave rolled his eyes and continued down the stairs, pushing the thought away. Thinking about that would make him wonder why and wondering about that would make him wonder why they were holding hands the other day and why they had been so buddy buddy and he just did NOT want to think about that. So, repressed thoughts it is. 

Maybe he'd arrange an appointment with Rose or something.

Ha. Fat chance.

-

The fourth night there, Rose and Kanaya try to gather everyone up for a second debriefing on liabilities and handicaps and to get a general summary of how the fuck there are six more players no one knew about or remembered.

Aside from Karkat and Gamzee, apparently. Even John, during the move, accidentally dropped a, "Yeah Ally's not a huge fan of chocolate," before realizing his mistake. So, next to Rose and Kanaya's room was one of the corner suites, big enough for seating for all, and around six that night, everyone gathered there for dinner by Jane and John and for Fruity Rumpus Asshole Meeting Round Two.

"I thought we could start this meeting by catching everyone up on the current players and introductions." Rose began once everyone quieted down. Vriska was still muttering to Terezi, but with a kick to the back of her chair from Sollux, she quieted down, glaring at everyone. "Karkat, are you ready?"

Karkat and John had went to purchase large tablets of paper and colorful markers and they were going to try and mark everything down again since the whiteboards hadn't worked out last time. Karkat had already listed the first four and was now making his way through the trolls while Rose continued. "Yeah, go ahead or whatever."

Dave settled further into the couch, kicking Ally's foot when she nudged him. She kicked back, but a sharp look from Kanaya made them both stop.

"I know we've been through this all before, but we now have four more players in attendance, even though one is still currently asleep." Rose begins again, gesturing to Alec and Luke, who are across the room. "So, if everyone could go in a circle and say your name, your class and aspect, and any handicaps the room should be aware of, that would be wonderful. I'll start. My name is Rose, I'm a Seer of Light, and I am a recovering alcoholic with a tendency to be possessed by horrorterrors."

"Hi, Rose!" Nepeta, Dave, and Ally all chimed, and Rose smiled politely at them. Next to her, John waved a hand.

"Hi! I'm John, an Heir of Breath…"

And so around the circle it went. Dave pretty much knew all of it already, so he continued doodling on his and Ally's godtier pants and watching it disappear a few seconds later while everyone re-introduced themselves.

"My name is Alec, I'm a Mage of Light." He paused, looking at Rose as he scratched the back of his head. "Um, nothing's really wrong with me, but I remember pretty much everything from both sessions and if I think about how they ended for too long, I get migraines and pass out!" He grinned sheepishly, then hurriedly gestured for Luke to go.

Luke was something of a mystery. Dave watched him carefully, waiting for Ally to redraw their tic tac toe board for the fourth time. Luke was quiet, almost always annoyed, and avoided Ally like the plague. From what Dave had seen, they haven't even spoken since they joined the group. From Alec's shy muttering, he had picked up on the fact that that was probably a good thing. Explosions were a good thing to avoid.

So why should she avoid the emotionless idiot that was Luke and not Bro?

Shit, no, don't think about shit like that--

Creepily, both Ally and Gamzee turned to look at him, and he mentally rolled his eyes. Jesus, were not even thoughts private anymore?

"Luke. Bard of Doom." He crossed his arms again, leaning back against the wall. Everyone waited, but he didn't say anything else.

Alec prompted, "Anything to add…?"

"Nope." Luke shrugged, decidedly looking at the floor, and Alec sighed like an annoyed parent.

"Luke, for some reason, has managed to evade the Lord affecting him." Alec looked at Rose. "I'm not sure how much you guys know about the Big Bad yet, but he was pissed with how our sessions set him back in his plans, and he punished everyone in them except for Luke." He pointed at his friend helpfully. "So, that's a possible advantage? But also, he tends to blow things up when upset, so a handicap."

"Thank you." Rose nodded, then looked to Nepeta to continue.

The circle continued around, Ally beat Dave in tic tac toe three times, and then it was her turn to wave and introduce herself.

"Hey, my name's Ally!" She looked around at everyone, waving back forcefully when Jade shot finger guns at her. "I'm an Heir of Heart in this timeline. I can feel memories of any of my other selves across any timeline, so I'm also a recovering alcoholic, drug addict, and I'm wanted in seven different states for arson and or destruction of property."

Everyone turns to look at her, suddenly paying attention once again. Dave can feel Ally start to curl in on herself beside him, but honestly _what._

Terezi lets out a cackle that breaks the silence. "Holy shit, you go girl! I should turn you in and claim the reward!"

"No, we should definitely not do that." John argues, looking Extremely Concerned. Karkat's even paused in writing to stare at her, and Ally begins blushing.

"You don't have to explain if you don't want to." Dave whispers next to her, but she shakes her head before taking a deep breath. Yeesh, even he's feeling nervous now. Maybe sitting next to her wasn't the best idea.

"Um, I was an alcoholic in seven different timelines, I think?" Ally starts, face blushing redder by the second. "Drug addict only in a couple, but I can still remember it. So every once in a while, if those memories get bad, I can kinda go--" She makes a weird whistling noise and waves her hand that makes Dave smirk and Jade cackle despite the seriousness. Relieved by breaking the tension, Ally looks right at Gamzee as she continues. "In a few other timelines, I was a Witch of Heart and a Bard and a Prince, and in all those I was really destructive. So when those memories got bad, arson was a good way to make them go away?" Ally shrugs. "Didn't really have a set home, so I'd use it to stop some bad guys, dye my hair, and run away to a different state. I was under a different alias every time, and I didn't start going by Alke until I was 16, and that's when I could control the memories."

"Seven states in six years." Terezi's grin widens, and Vriska's already looking like she's plotting next to her. "Impressive!"

Ally shrugs, still nervous as she draws up her feet under her. "Anyways, I guess none of those are a liability anymore. So nevermind? But yeah! We have three more players from our set that Alec and I can introduce sufficiently, probably." Alec nods across the way, and Rose waves for her to continue.

"So there's Emma, who's the unconscious one. She's supposed to be a Witch of Life, but we're not totally sure if she's inverting or not." Ally counts off. "The horrorterrors can talk to her, but as far as I know, she hasn't ever been possessed."

"Also, the Lord can talk to her indirectly." Alec frowns. "Not sure why since she isn't a time player, but he can. That was a big part in both of our sessions failing."

"Right." Ally nods, then continues. "Our other two players have yet to come, but hopefully with the emails and messages Karkat and I sent, they should be here in a couple days! One is Ivan, he's a Seer of Time."

"He's deaf, and also a purpleblooded troll." Alec adds. "So if he gets a coolblood rage, get him to Fran."

"Fran is the other player, his moirail and possibly matesprit? I think they dated in the last universe." Ally explains. "She's a Thief of Space, a really strong one from what I remember. She also has sprite blasts, but gets seizures."

Davesprite pops up from behind a counter. "Sprite blasts?"

"Yeah! Crabdad can do them, too!" Alec tells him, grinning, and Davesprite nods.

"Oh. Cool. Okay."

Rose looks over to Karkat's list, then back around the room. "So there, my fellow players, are all 22 of us. Now, I'm quite curious to hear the story of your two sessions," She looks to Alec, who blushes, "Seeing as we had to leave the Queen's hub behind, would you mind telling us what all went down?" She pulls out from under her seat the large book Alec handed her the other day, purple pen in hand and ready to take notes.

"Oh, sure." Alec nodded, scooting forward a bit so he can see around the whole group. "Well, I guess I need to start with the fact that because of time and space shenanigans, our session was both always before and always after yours. I split it up into two different sessions when talking about it, because it happened twice with extremely different outcomes, but Skaia only remembers it as one. And, since we were both always before yet always after, things are kind of screwy, so you'll have to bear with me, alright?"

"Get on with it!" Vriska shouts, and Luke smirks behind Alec. Alec blushes harder, and looks instead between Rose and Ally as he talks.

"Alrighty, here we go. Our first time around started out pretty normal, I guess. None of us knew Ivan was a troll until we got in the game and met up, and honestly, I'm not quite sure how he got there. The only reason I can think of would be that one of the paradox clones from you guys got sent through a wrong portal and he ended up on our earth instead of Alternia. Because, um, Gamzee." Alec turned to him like he was kind of afraid. "You never had an ancestor on your planet, right?"

Karkat whips around to look at him, but Gamzee only nods. "Right, bro, I was always the only fucker with my sign."

Alec nods, confirming his theory. "Well, okay, that's great to get an answer. So, yeah. Gamzee and Ivan are related the way the rest of us are somehow. But that's neither here nor there, just an interesting side note." He looks around again, eyes settling on Dave and Ally once more. "Like I said, our session started normal, except Emma told us not to prototype the sprites before we went through. None of us understood why, but she was our leader, so we went along with it, except for Ally, who prototyped hers with a crystal ball of some sort."

Alec sighs. "This created a mostly void session. None of our other sprites were ever prototyped, and our lands all were pretty barren. There was only a few quests on each. Emma seemed to think this was a good thing, and that it would be really easy for us to win, but it was definitely bad. So, she and Ally argued, and Ally left to go do all of the quests and prove her wrong. It took her a few months or so, since they were few and far between, and then she went god tier at the end of it. Emma got even more pissed in the meantime and moved into Ally's old dream tower on Derse. Now, your awake self really shouldn't be on Prospit or Derse, just your dream self. So, since Emma had both of hers there and none of us to keep check on her, things began to go sideways."

Ally shifted nervously beside Dave, and then suddenly there was a large weight on the other side of her on that end of the couch. Dave flinched, looking over, and saw that Gamzee was now sitting there, arm across the back of the couch behind her. Ally glanced with wide eyes from Gamzee over to Karkat and John, but John only smiled and waved. Karkat rolled his eyes and looked back to the boards, adding notes under other people.

"Ally was off doing quests on all the planets, so she wasn't around to see it all. But, she did meet someone." Alec glanced up, nervously smiling at Ally. "She met Gamzee."

"What?!" Karkat spins around, looking at Gamzee as if he could offer an explanation. "You were in their session?"

"At the end of everything, when we were scratching things our second time around," Alec interrupts, holding his hands out in a placating gesture, "Gamzee and I were trying to find the tumor, which is a thing that'll blow everything up, thinking we could use it against the Lord. But, we got caught up in a bad fight with some of his minions, and Gamzee got kicked across a few universes and into one of our sessions." Alec smiles sheepishly. "From what that Ally told me, he was there with her for months, and they were moirails. You two had broken up because of something, I don't know, things were really screwy. But right before Emma began destroying things, Gamzee got kicked across a few universes again, and Ally was devastated. And that's where things got shitty." He sighed heavily. "Back to Emma."

"The horrorterrors began talking to Emma." Alec continues, looking at the floor. "But they couldn't possess her, which I guess was a really good thing, looking back. But still, they kind of drove her to the point of madness, and she took Ally's Ballsprite, combined it with three other sprites, then did some weird voodoo witchy stuff and made a doll come to life." He looked up, face serious.

"She created a first guardian. Our first universe we came from didn't have them, but every planet after did. He was a purely evil doll, and he inspired her to begin destroying Derse and Prospit and everyone. She full inverted to a doom player, and the Lord thanked her for the doll by giving her unlimited power." Alec's voice gets shaky, clasping his hands together.

"Immediately, I called for Ally, but I was the first person Emma killed. Ivan was killed not long after, and she got Fran's, Luke's and her own dream selves before Ally was able to get there to fight her. Since Ally was god tier, she was able to beat her, but there was nothing left in the session." Alec shrugged, looking up to Ally. "Fran went back to her planet to try and get the forge to release the frog somehow and Ally went to go find the tumor. I think Fran must have stolen the frog from our other session, but she released it, and the troll's universe was created. The Lord was so mad, he was so angry--" Alec cuts himself off, squeezing his eyes shut behind his glasses.

"He came into our timeline just after the frog grew to adulthood and killed Fran himself. He destroyed everything after that, smashing planet after planet and when he came upon Ally, he swore he was going to punish all of us, and that no matter where we ran, he'd always come find us. So, he smashed time in that session, leaving nothing but a vacuum around the planets, and left Ally all alone, floating out there in the nothingness. Since she was a god tier, and with nothing to kill her, she'd be all alone out there, forever." Alec looked at Ally again, the saddest expression on his face. "His punishment was that she would always feel alone. Forever."

"And that is where your first session ended?" Rose prompted gently, and Alec nodded.

"Yeah. That was it. But, because of the TARDIS maneuver that Jade and Dave pulled at the end of your session, our timestream was so shattered that it got caught up in the cross-universal pull and certain things from our universe imprinted itself across yours." Alec began gesturing with his hands, looking like his mood was lightening. 

"Flashstepping was a big thing in the culture Ally grew up in, and it was hard to master, but a lot of people did it. It was a really popular fighting technique, and Ally was the best. I'm sure you all know by now that only a few people here can do it. Trolls are around because of Ivan, I'm pretty sure. And it was his anger at the end of his life that was imprinted on your people that made them so angry and violent on Alternia. You guys are much better here, thank god. Our first version of Earth was really backwards technology wise, but Fran was super smart, so you guys were a lot more inventive this time around. A lot of you got a love for books and learning from me. But it's little things, all across the board, from our first session that imprinted and made yours." 

Alec gestured that he was moving on. "Anyways. Our second session, right. Our second session came from the frog that Jade and them made. In our first session, the TARDIS maneuver interfered with our paradox clone portals, and sent the alternate versions of us into the genesis frog you all produced. Since we were in the timestream, the Lord was able to mess with us, and that's how we all got our problems. And I...He cursed me with remembering everything, thinking that the poor little Mage of Light who hated himself in the first session would do the same thing again, allow the same evils to happen."

Fists clenched, Alec growled out, "But I didn't. I took everything that I remembered and helped everyone to do the opposite." He sighed then, relaxing. "Unfortunately, Emma was getting help from the damn puppet, so she was working against me nearly the whole time. I got everyone to prototype their sprites correctly, but because of that TARDIS thing, the Queens skipped right by our session and instead ended up here on Earth, right now instead of in the game. Once we were in the game, I had Ally leveling up as fast as I could, and Gamzee appeared in our session again, and he helped get Ivan and Fran leveling up as well. Fortunately, he was kicked back to his own timeline before our shit blew up."

"You were in both of their sessions?" Rose asks, mouth parting like she's amazed. Alec nods, ignoring her as he continues. He's got a pained look on his face, and Dave bets that's a migraine coming on. Ally continues to shift nervously next to Dave, and Gamzee moves a hand to Ally's knee, and that makes Rose's eyebrows shoot up again.

"Ally went god tier after only a few hours." Alec recounts, voice serious once more. "Emma got ahold of Fran's dream self and killed her as I was getting Ivan to go god tier. God, I was so stupid, only focused on getting us all as powerful as I could and not keeping tabs on her." He shakes his head, grimacing. "Right as I went to go god tier, Emma attacked Prospit and Derse both. She was too powerful, with the help from the Lord, and destroyed them both before killing Fran. I wasn't there, but according to Ally, she and Luke went to go help Ivan, who had flown off after Emma. Luke threw Fran's body into a sprite, making Fransprite, and Ivan died heroically from saving Luke. Just after, Ally finally got the kill hit on Emma. But we weren't safe."

Alec looks over to Karkat, pointing to his boards. "We began being pestered by a few of you who I think were trying to pester the other kids but got us instead. Karkat was pestering Ally and I, Sollux argued with Luke for a grand total of like six seconds, and I believe we were talking to either Terezi or Kanaya as well, but I'm not positive on that. But it was obvious we weren't the kids you were trying to contact, so you stopped trolling us pretty quick. Unfortunately, Ally took that as an invitation to keep pestering you, so we never quite lost contact."

"I remember that!" Ally startled, looking to Karkat as well. "You kept calling me windy kid or something. You were super rude, too."

Dave snorted, "Did you really expect anything else from Karkles?"

Karkat frowned, but Alec interrupted him before he could go on a tangent.

"Fransprite left to go finish the frog making. Literally two seconds after she left, there was a huge solar wind shooting across the surface of Emma's planet, and I realized a half a second too late that it was the TARDIS." Alec rolled his eyes. "We got swept up in it and pulled into the big meeting. We couldn't have been far behind, it looked like you guys had just gotten past introductions when we crash landed around you."

"So who came up with the scratch plan, then?" Jade asked, frowning. 

"Aradia." Alec answered firmly. "After we all said hey and caught up for two minutes, the sky began crackling, and we got down to business. I gave her the footnotes on our first session, and she and I delegated who needed to do what. It was obvious since she and Dave were the time players that they would need to go scratch their sessions, and Ally volunteered to do ours. So, Jade helped with the transporting, and each of them went to go scratch while the rest of us fought the Lord. Gamzee and I went looking for the tumor, like I said, and I didn't see him again. Dave finished his scratch first, and the explosion knocked him into our session where Ally was trying to scratch. Then, as Ally scratched theirs, they realized something was wrong, and Ally remembered her other self, still floating out there, and realized that the first iteration of our session was still out there somewhere, over top of everything in some weird overlay since it was never technically ended. Gamzee appeared then, and through his crazy powers, warped reality so that they could scratch, and she and Aradia finished the other scratches right at the same time."

Alec took a look around the room, and then shrugged. "And that's where we are now. A lot of things from the sessions carried over because of Gamzee warping everything at the end, I'm pretty sure. At least, it would explain why the former sprites still have blasts and we all retained our god tiers and disabilities from previous sessions."

Dave glances around the room along with everyone else, mulling over that they had just learned. Since it seemed like no one else really had anything to add, he bit the bullet.

"So? What now?"

"Now, I guess," Ally sighed shakily, "We wake up Emma."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pesterlog coding is so hard holy shit


End file.
